The Good Father of Germa
by VisitorNo.18
Summary: Where Judge became the loving husband and father and Sora was the genius scientist who wanted perfect children. Where Ichiji, Niji and Yonji were like Reiju; and only Sanji was genetically modified to repress some feelings and emotions. How will both parent's love change the black sheep in the family? -Expect love, lots of love for all Vinsmoke kids.
1. C1 Trial 0

**The Good Father of Germa**

_Where Judge became the loving husband and father and Sora was the one who was the one who wanted perfect children. Where Ichiji, Niji _and_ Yonji were like Reiju; and only Sanji was genetically modified._

**C1: Trial 0**

In another life where there was love in the King of Germa's marriage, he would never want his wife to suffer. In another life where there was love in the Royal Family of Germa 66, he would never come to see his children as mere warriors and soldiers. In another life, Judge would have been the perfect king, husband, father and warrior, while Sora would have been the genius scientist and worrying mother.

When their first daughter was born, Judge was filled with immense joy and love. From her laugh to her smile, and her silken blonde hair he wonders if she inherited from her mother or from him, she was already perfect in his eyes. Reiju was an angel. He tells Sora. He gushes as he holds her in his large hands. He was very tempted, to change the name his wife had prepared and call her Angela instead, but Judge love his wife, and the name oddly suiting their daughter. Reiju Vinsmoke. The name was chilling, quite like her daughter's smile which she took from her mother.

Sora smiles back at him and Reiju, her smile never reaches her eyes, even when she was still little and she would watch her father work in his study and his laboratory. Even her own father once said that her smile looked barely that. He confessed it unnerved him, but Judge accepted her little smile, and that was one good reason why she loved him in a way she could never love another.

Yet this time, her smile doesn't feel like a true smile, even to her heart. This day, she was merely lifting the muscles at the corners of her lips. For when she looks at her daughter she sees life, imperfect and weak. She worries. She is frightened of what the world could do to such a little thing. Of what the world could do to Germa with her as the princess.

Sora may have gone behind her husband's back. She may have mutated Reiju to be stronger than most, with an exoskeleton to protect her, faster healing abilities, and a suiting power to her DNA which would develop in time. She may have developed a few tests and training regimes, ready for when Reiju could talk and walk. A training to make her a warrior princess of Germa. With all these slight enhancements, showing that it was, in fact, possible and feasible, she wasn't yet satisfied. It was one girl against the world. One girl against the kingdoms of North Blue and the Grand Line which she and her husband dreams to someday reclaim under the Germa 66 territories. From the pits of her stomach, she felt fear for her daughter's future.

"She is beautiful." Sora follows. "I want a boy next."

Judge was stuck between doing a double take and smiling in glee. "Whatever you say my queen."

"So will you give me your sperm?" She pouts, hand extending already, reaching for his crotch. Judge stops her before she could. Stalling her from doing something so indecent in front of so many prying eyes.

"Ah- only when you've recovered enough to work," Judge says. "Only then I promise to give you my sperm. On the condition that your ovulation period is settled into a schedule and the scientists give the go signal after the hysteroscopy, ultrasound, APE and…" If it isn't obvious, Reiju was not conceived in the normal way.

Judge and Sora had tried everything. They tried going at it like rabbits for half a year before they realize this was ineffective, and for whatever reason, they simply would not be making any children this way. Sora took matters into her own hands. She had taken Judge's sperm and conducted in-vitro fertilization and implanted the eggs into her uterus. It was perfect! He didn't even realize the slight enhancements she had done while at the incubation phase.

Then he adds. "And no, you can't genetically enhance them further than Reiju's enhancement."

Sora blinks. Then she blinks again. "You knew?"

"Of course I knew. I'm the King of Germa. I only let you do the enhancement on Reiju because the scientists said it was only minor body enhancements." With one arm, he cradles Reiju, setting her right to make sure her head is positioned right. With the other hand, she reaches for Sora's. She flinches at his touch but does not move away.

"Sora, I know you are scared." He rubs his thumb over the back of her hand, soothing her a bit before he speaks again. "You never want to see your children get hurt and bleed as other children do. You don't want to see them fail, and you never want to see them cry." He looks her in the eyes, she only avoids his. "I do too. I never want to see them suffer, like any parent who loves their children." This time, Sora looks at him, shy and apprehensive. She knew what she did wrong, but why can't he just say it? They entered this marriage together, yet she excluded him from this decision on Reiju's life and future.

"Sora, I'm not blaming you for anything. I would never blame you for what you want for our kid's futures. They're yours as well, and I know you would never harm them." He lifts her hand and gives it a gentle peck, "but I would also want you to be honest with me. That's all I ask of you, Sora. To be faithful and honest, to show that you love me with just those two things would mean the world and everything in it."

Sora cries. She was so lucky to have this man. "I promise." She wipes her tears away. "I'll be honest. I will never lie to you, my love." Sora meant to keep that promise. And she will keep it until she dies.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

A new Fanfic! (Well, I'm getting braver in my opinion.)…

Now I know what you were all thinking. Wutz up with the Nazi title?

(To those who don't understand, translate the title to German.)

Well, its not really Nazi, it just suits Germa 66 so much.

We all know that Sanji is from France,,, but tell me this. Who are the Franks? (Hetalia fans help me out here.)

Now tell me this, Holy Roman Empire, where is that and what is the territorial scope of them now in the modern world map?

I rest my case. (Which I do not have. I just really really wanted to say that.)

Basically, all I'm saying is Oda pointed out that Sanji could be from France, but if you look at that messed-up history and compare that to Germa(n) history, you would notice they overlap in the territory. So basically Europe is a mess and Oda was inspired, and that inspired me and now I will sleep. Good night! Gute nacht Bonne nuit! And Thankyou for reading! :D


	2. C2 Trials 1-4

**C2: TRIALS 1-2-3-4**

Reiju was growing up beautifully, and far too quickly in Judge's opinion. It was only 3 years ago that she was born, and now she was practically doing the things an almost 8 year-old can do. The stage of development was fast and efficient, just as Sora had predicted. While she treasured the moments where she would change Reiju and breastfeed her, she was definitely glad those days were closer to over. Now, Reiju could stand and talk in sentences. She was a prodigy, the other nobles in other countries would say, but Judge and Sora knew the truth of her quick growth and talent.

Sora had introduced to Judge the trials, tests and training plans she had made for Reiju, and while he didn't like it that his little angel would be trained to become a warrior, he understood where Sora was coming from.

Just the other day, a king from another Kingdom, from the Grand Line no less, had presented his second son to be a fiance for Princess Reiju. Which would have been cute, however, the second son was 20-something years older than Reiju and was obviously a man dependent on illegal medication.

Judge was furious, and so he annihilated the shabby kingdom until all that was left was an island so small it was barely an island. It was only a rock shaped like a mushroom outcropping the ocean.

He left the king on top of the island he once called his, and watched him plummet to the bottom of the sea, only to land on a spike hidden by the waves, impelling him and letting the blood be washed away until his existence was nothing. His second son, he also left on the island. He never jumped to the sea to comply with his fate, but with no supplies and no medication, he was sure to die and cease to exist, as his father ceased to exist, and their kingdom, their power and history.

Now however, Reiju was beside her mother who was lying on the bed, gently touching the bump on her belly. Sora had been on bed rest for the last two months. It seems carrying 4 boys in her body was harder than she thought. And despite her being a strong woman, her body says otherwise with four growing boys inside her.

"Mommy, why are the babies here?" She asks, curious. Sora was glad she was an inquisitive one. An important trait of a scientist. Reiju would learn everything she knows one day, and the legacy of Germa would continue to her children and maybe even to their grandchildren. She smiles at the thought.

"Because they need to be in mommy's belly to grow until they're big enough to come out," Sora explains. "Reiju, when they come out, you're going to be a big sister. Would you like that?"

Reiju pouts. "I don't want to." She pouts as she looks at her dress. Sora coos, she's just so adorable. "But you'll try at least, won't you Reiju? To become a good big sister?" Reiju nods but still doesn't look away from her dress.

The peace wasn't interrupted by the entrance of Judge and the scientists. Judge practically stormed into the room with anger and sadness in his eyes, a conflicting mix of both that won't settle on the stiffness of his lip. Sora knew something must be wrong. "Reiju, you should go and play outside, or study your periodic table. I'll quiz you later with the flashcards if you want."

Reiju huffs but obeys. She gets out of bed, grabs her sitter's hand and was led out of the door.

The moment the door closes, she looks to Judge with a serious expression. "What's wrong?"

It wasn't Judge who spoke, it was one of the scientists. "Your Highness, there's an abnormality in your pregnancy." Sora's blood runs cold. She stiffens. "Wha- what's wrong?"

"There must have been an overdose of one of the enhancement drugs. Your children now may grow-up to be heartless monsters, devoid of a few emotions and feelings. We… we suspect that, if they do make it, they will have congenital insensitivity to pain, heart problems and/or a few psychological problems with increased aggression and low impulse control." The scientist takes a break to breathe before he continues. "They would be too powerful to keep in your body for a full term." Sora gulps. Based from trial 0, she was able to carry her full term, exactly the day she was expecting. If she were to give birth to trials 1-4 premature, the minimum that she could do would be 7 months and 6 days into pregnancy. Unless there was another solution.

"What are the corrective actions?"

"For the abnormalities and increased aggression, the first solution we can propose is a counter drug. If this works, your children may be stabilized or the enhancements could be reverted. You will end-up giving birth to normal children, much less durable than Princess Reiju, but healthy and stable enough to live a happy life. The only draw back, is…" The scientist pauses, looks to King Judge first, before he tries to find a sign that he was doing alright from his colleagues.

"What? What's the side effect?" Sora asks.

"This may affect your health, drastically… You may die at labor should you carry them full term." Judge grits his teeth when he hears Sora draw her breath. She was speechless, trembling. Judge can't bare to watch any longer and decided to hold her into his arms.

Their audience may call him weak, but he was but a man in love. He may be a King, born to rule with an iron fist, he may be a Warrior, raised to coat his hands in the blood of his enemies, but he was also a father, a husband and a lover. He had a heart, despite all that they say, despite all they think he should be.

"O- other proposals?" Sora trembles still, but she must know. The scientist in her wants ideas, answers. He respects and loves her for this.

"If not the drug, the other solution we never want to do is abortion…"

"No!" Sora protests sternly. "I will not abort my boys. I will take the drug, but only once we see the data. Th- there must be a-a best time to take it, that- that it won't kill any of us." She swallows her fears and keeps her trembles at bay, hand protectively holding her stomach, her sons. "Another test. This week and the last few weeks. I want to see them. Then show me the ingredients of the drug and their dosages. If we can lower the dosages and potency and put it into treatments, we can still keep their enhancements and keep my health as long as I am given time to heal. If we can- minimally-invasive procedures is another option."

"Yes! Yes your highness!" The scientists quickly got to work. Going out of the room to get the data they will present to her. the two royals were left alone to talk to themselves, but it was more of keeping silent and giving comfort, the same way they talk deafeningly with their stares and touches and take comfort as time stood still.

They were both scientists, both with good heads on their shoulders, but one more knowledgeable in their field than the other. They were both warriors, one stronger and more vicious than the other, yet to family… To family, all that but fades away. Their brains would stop, their hearts would waver, and only when they realize they can't but they must; only then will everything work back into the rhythm they knew.

—

After careful deliberation and further study on the drug, the scientists had agreed for her to take it in 3 dosages every week when she hits the 5 month mark. After the 6th month, they will monitor if their enhancements would still be in effect, if not then she will have to take one last enhancement drug a week before they are to be taken out of her in 7 months and 6 days. That is not counting the various vitamins and supplement she would have to continue on when she first felt the strain of carrying four boys.

It was found that their developments were going as they had expected, and the right procedures were done. When it was time for the day of the surgery for a cesarian, Judge sat in vigil at the other side of the door. Judge wasn't a man of prayer, but he pressed his hands together and prayed to every god and every deity he knew for their safety. It took barely an hour, compared to the 7 months he had first heard their conception, and the 3 months spent worrying after the doctors and scientists foresaw the abnormality. Then he heard 1, then 2, then 3 and 4 wails, he couldn't stop the tears in his eyes. His lips already mouthing the thanks he was giving to all the deities that gave him the miracles he was asking for.

After Sora was stiched-up and the doors were opened for the King to meet his four sons, he was literally taken aback by all four of them in their incubators. All of them were pale, wrinkly but breathing. They weren't like Reiju at all, who was born with a full tuff of hair and was unfairly beautiful for a newly born baby.

The four boys were so so tiny and so wrinkly and so vulnerable. His heart aches for them in worry, but leaps for joy in the fact that they were alive. They were all asleep, the little precious things he'd want to touch, but he's suddenly so afraid that his hands would break them. So for now, he lets his eyes glide over their skins, to their heads still without a single tuff of hair, till he counts the even numbers of their fingers and toes.

He then looks to Sora who was resting beside the incubators, she was still asleep, breathing, alive -his mind drifts, but his mind tells him that her chest is rising and falling in rhythm, that her heart still beats a with the rise and fall of her every breath, that the flush in her cheeks were returning- and she is just asleep.

He should be happy, and he is. He should be happier, like his usual self when he is happy and triumphant in war, but for now, he only wants to sit down, take a long breath and a long nap.

After 7 months, he finally let relief wash over him.

* * *

_** Author's Notes:**_

_Ahhh! They are finally born! Baby princes! Loving Germa parents with lovely children!_

_They are royalty, and everyone loves royal babies! :D_

_Before you comment "It was an operation. The quints were enhanced by surgery" and all that stuff, yes I know._

_It's just that since Reiju was also Sora's, isn't it obvious they did something "more" to the quints in the anime to drain their emotions, but Reiju is still an enhanced human._

_In this fic, they are all enhanced, only until Canon Reiju's level, except for Sanji who will show developments like his Canon biological brothers._


	3. C3 Observation 31

**C3: OBSERVATION 3.1**

* * *

Judge was beginning to worry. Sora had introduced the boys to their tests and training. While they all passed the tests, Sanji was exceeding expectation, and for Sora that wasn't right.

The young princes, all sporting bright golden hair as vibrant and sunny as his, all wide and twinkling blue eyes as hers and bright smiles that weren't quite like theirs but a mixture of it with bits from both, were happy, healthy and content in their lives. That's what they want to think.

Their lives were good, for ruling monarchs. That's also what they liked to think.

Their subjects loved them. Their kids are able to run around the kingdom without worry, and the citizens all do their part to protect their royal kids like they were extended family. They made friends with the citizens and soldiers, because there were no other kids in the Germa kingdom, not since they were born, and it was fine.

After all, kids in the Germa 66 were the most vulnerable. Being a seafaring kingdom being at the mercy of the sea and a military monarchy with enemies in all the oceans, made by the animosity of generations past, they were never truly safe.

Children would be dangerous to bring along, hence the clones. With the exemption of the Royal Children who were enhanced with exoskeletons; the Germa Kingdom do not let others in. Stowaways must be sent away as for the kingdom's rules, unless they proved themselves useful in a trade. They had doctors and other studies of science, and blue-collared jobs from all over the world, and they were the only exemptions.

Some scientists would talk to the kids, and some would report to Sora herself whenever they visit her or she visits them. Some psychologists, however, noticed something different about one of them. Sanji was special, the psychologist had mentioned. There was something off with his behavior- she had mentioned once in passing. Sora took notice because she knew better what an observation entailed. So she told her husband.

Judge couldn't believe it because Sanji, his third son, was smart. He got a 94% in the written tests when he was 3 years old. Then 96% when he was 4 years old and 97% when he was 5. Yet he doesn't tell this to his siblings, losing interest the moment they present their meager scores of 68-80%. Reiju had a maintaining score of 92% all her life, and that was still within the spectrum that Sora had estimated. For Judge, this merely meant that Sanji had his parents' minds. He'd told her, he was proud their fourth child had shown intelligence so advanced, he was a prodigy.

Then the results of the physical examinations were brought up, Sanji got 95-99% in all of his tests- speed and agility, balance, muscle strength tests, stamina, lung capacity, accuracy and precision, and all other tests the scientists and doctors required; compared to his brother's average scoring raging from 78-88%. Reiju maintains an improving score of 80-90%, but Sora expects a decline or stagnation when she hits the stage of puberty. Judge hadn't thought much of this but the success of the enhancement. After-all, Sora had taken one last does of the enhancement drug at the last leg of the pregnancy.

Yet Sanji, his third son, was angry and fidgety almost half the time. He was fierce, condescending and moody. Sometimes he was disinterested, other times he was extremely happy and social, showing signs of bi-polarity. Luckily, he didn't show extreme signs of violence, only playful shoving, and rough-housing the way little boys play with their siblings, but he often shows signs of depression. For Sora and the scientists, this was a bad sign. Judge thought he'd grow out of it.

Then one day, he was sliced by a knife when he had taken an interest in cooking and baking.

The knife cut deep enough to scar despite his exoskeleton, and he was bleeding quite a lot. Yet he only stared. Sora knew then that there was something wrong, as did the other doctors who've noticed something with him as well. At that time, the chef who was teaching him noticed the blood, red and flowing like a river, and immediately took action to stop it and sent him to the infirmary. Sora was called and that's when it all became so incredibly obvious. Sanji had CIP, just as the doctors had predicted during her pregnancy.

Judge took some time to process this. CIP (Congenital insensitivity to pain) just meant that Sanji could not feel pain. Then how has he been unharmed all this time? Surely there must be a mistake. How come Sanji never scratched his skin till it bled? Never bit his nails till he bit skin? Never scratched his eye when it itched? How come he never went too far in his everyday rituals? Judge had requested for more assessments and tests until they decided to interview Sanji for his opinion why he can't feel pain.

"I felt the knife cut, and I felt pain after." He had admitted, "but it wasn't a big deal." Which was also wrong in their standards. A normal child's reaction to pain would be to cry, so what was wrong with prince Sanji? The scientists wondered, going back and forth between mental or physical clauses. If it were because of the exoskeleton, genetic make-up or a mental disorder with regards to indifference.

At the end of the sharing, they could not settle for a conclusion. So Sora continued her observations, on all the injuries her children sustain.

Ichiji had once scraped his knees and legs when he was dragged over water at mach speed 3 on a water skiing (engine testing which the boys hijacked) incident (with regards to his brothers' insistence that its absolutely safe, and he should try it because he is the eldest), despite him having an exoskeleton to protect him, it proved still too weak and underdeveloped to keep him safe from the water and the speed.

He had cried so much and whined that it had hurt. It had taken him 2 months to heal before he was allowed to run around the kingdom again without a sitter. Ichiji had been 4 years old, with a still developing exoskeleton, not yet quite as strong as Reiju's.

She remembers he had cried when he was brought in the infirmary to be treated. Sora was already by his side and his siblings around him. Niiji and Yonji were still wearing their trunks just like Ichiji. Sanji and Reiju didn't like to swim so they were wearing longs clothes that covered their skins while the other three played in the water.

"There there Prince Ichiji, your skin will heal and the exoskeleton will grow back." The doctor had said, but Ichiji still wailed, and Niji was tearing-up in guilt while apologizing and Yonji also cried because Ichiji's wails were contagious and the scrapes were large and looked so red and so painful.

Reiju was silently holding Ichiji's hand which was crushing hers tightly, while Sanji was just there to be there. He wasn't saying anything to comfort, nor was he doing anything bad.

Sora had guessed it was because Sanji was such a careful child, and still didn't know how this kind of pain felt. She had guessed there would be a late bloomer among them in apathy, with what had happened during her pregnancy. So she kept her observations and continued to log the times they would get into accidents as well as their reactions and recuperation.

Niji had dislocated an arm once, while it was re-set, he yelled so loud and cried after wards, but he was better after getting ice cream and hugs. Yet he still complained and cried when he didn't like something. It was completely normal behavior for a child.

Yonji and Reiju had their own accidents as well, from falling-off swings, scraped knees and knocked out teeth; and yes they cried and wailed and sniffed; and was consoled after by their parents, but with Sanji… Never once did they hear him cry, even after he was able to talk.

Sora had pulled him aside and the Doctors and Psychologists had run tests on him and tried to finalize their findings. He was special, they said. Sanji is special.

Judge finally believed Sora after the knife incident.


	4. C4: Observation 32

**C4: OBSERVATION 3.2**

It was the middle of the morning, and Sora was still on their bed, staring straight at the ceiling for the past 2 hours and 34 minutes after she had woken up. She had miscalculated, but she knew her complication wasn't that easy to solve, yet she had gone 5 years without seeing her mistake, without even noticing the difference. She was angry at herself, she should have done better. She berates. Judge does not let her wallow in her despair, but she insisted just this day, just this instance, to let her be and let her think. Let her wallow in her own thoughts. Let her settle into the idea that she had failed to save her son, and there was no other solution but to live with it and adapt to Sanji's case.

A part of her, the parent side, was softer and more encouraging on her, for the things she had no control over, yet the side of the scientist's was furious, incredibly mad and ragging in her head, leaving a mess of broken test tubed and Petri dishes, broken by her imaginary tantrum and manifestation of disappointment.

She shouldn't have enhanced any of her children, she thinks to herself. She shouldn't have taken the last pill at the last week. Maybe Sanji wouldn't be like this if she hadn't.

Then she thinks again. She had seen her children cry, and she was saddened but so pleased that they were there for each other like the day Ichiji got hurt.

* * *

She remembered that after the incident with Ichiji, Niji and Yonji stayed indoors to play with him, while Reiju was in the kitchen with Sanji and they made snacks for all of them with the help of the chefs. Judge didn't like the idea of his children in the kitchen. Royals served no one, he had said, before she came along and sweetly told him to make her lunch with all his love in it…

Judge ended up making incredibly burnt garlic bread and under seasoned eggs.

"This is why they should have at least a few cooking lessons, so they don't end up helpless like you dear." Sora had teased but ended up eating the underseasoned eggs. "It could use a bit of work, but I didn't marry you for your cooking."

"So what did you marry me for?" Judge had asked as he also took a bite of his work and grimaced in disgust.

"Your love." Sora had pecked his cheek. "You didn't know how to cook, yet you still tried for me. That's more than enough reason to love you."

"And here I thought you were going to praise my wit, brawns and brains." He'd snaked a hand to her hip.

"Oh, I married you for those too." She teases with a playful jab, "but I can't say that I married you for your looks."

"I am offended, I just happen to be the most handsome warrior king scientist of the Germa kingdom."

"Oh is that right now?" She plays as she puts down the fork and places her hands on his cheeks. She tilts it side to side, pretending to study his features. She sighs with a heavy breath, but her smile remains.

"Well, you are the only warrior king scientist of Germa, so I guess this is the best we have." Judge plays hurt, but ends up ticking his wife with the hand he slipped at the corner of her hip, poking the very ticklish spot that Sora had been hiding from him since their wedding day. Judge knows of course, just as he knows every part of Sora's body and her daily schedule and tics maybe even she doesn't know off. Now, however, Sora laughs, bordering from annoyed to hysteric, and only when she had admitted that he was, in fact, the most handsome man she had ever met did Judge stop and let her back to her lunch.

Later in the day, when the whole family is spending time in Ichiji's room, Judge sits by Sora's side. The topic returned, about the most handsome warrior king scientist in all of Germa. Ichiji playing the contender to his father, despite being on bed-rest. Then Niji and Sanji and Yonji joining in the impromptu men's "beauty" contest. How Sanji won was a wonder since both Reiju and Sora voted for him.

Yonji says Sanji cheated, but Reiju says he has a knack for poetry, despite not meaning the words he'd said.

Which Sanji confirmed by saying he just wanted the title of the most handsome warrior king, so he said some lines at the top of his head...

"You both are the loveliest flowers that bloomed in the whole of Grandline. The sweetest flowers to obtain, the rarest and most beautiful when it blooms in the night. Who's beauty is fleeting, but whose legend is immortal."

Which made both Sora and Reiju blush, despite knowing Sanji, but that was the best attempt compared to Judge and the boy's cheesy-corny pick-up lines. No doubt the boys had learned from their father and all the times he'd act stupidly in-love before their mother.

"Come now Yonji, that wasn't very nice to say to your brother." Sora had added, "Sanji just has a talent for being the most charming prince in the land." She kissed Sanji in the cheek as did Reiju, dubbing him the winner.

Judge comes and playfully pats Sanji's hair, messing it up. "Well, I'll surrender the title of the most handsome warrior king scientist of Germa to you now Sanji, but the next time we have this competition, I expect you to say your true feelings about the girls in your life."

Judge knows, he could have also spouted lines as poetic and measured, better than Sanji and more suited to Sora and her science, but that's not what happened. He ended up saying the most cringe-worthy pick-up lines at the presence of his love, and already his mind went blank and that was all that came out… Cheesy pick-up lines. He was but a man before a goddess, his mind supplied, and he begins to wonder if Sanji got his poetics from him.

With that, he looks to Sora his wife, with the eyes Sora had only known as fondness and true happiness. The bright, almost wet eyes of contentment that glistens with pure joy in its calmest form.

"I am blessed with the most wonderful wife in the entire world, you make me the happiest man in the world." Judge had said it with a devious smile to Sora when he moved to pick her up, he kept her close to his heart and she knew he meant it. He meant every word from the bottom of his heart.

Sora had blushed and had given him an innocent kiss. Judge was the best thing that ever happened to her, she supplied. Their children, this joy, this life, he gave her everything she had asked for, he even stands the worst part of her. Her insecurities, her fears, her insanity and exploits to science. Without him, she would have turned mad, she thinks, so she kisses him again to show him just how much he meant to her. Longer and more passionate than was appropriate with their audience.

The children were complaining that they had to watch their parents being "gross", except for Reiju who was actually blushing but looking away. Sora knows, that every girl dreams of the same love she had found, especially her daughter who had the same blood as hers. She asks to be let down, to spare the kids the "gross" scenes she'd have found enjoyable and continued their day doing other things.

* * *

It was noon now, and Sora had fallen asleep in her contemplating, remembering a dream of simpler times, of happier times. Judge knocks on the door and enters with a pushcart of food, followed by Sanji and Niji. The two boys woke-up their mom, while Judge just stayed at the sideline.

When Sora was woken-up, she had felt two tiny hands pulling on her blanket and dress. She opens her eyes to see two of her bundles of sunshines poking and prodding her to wake.

"Mama?" Niji had called her "are you awake now?"

"Oh, Niji, Sanji, what time is it?"

"It's after lunch… You didn't join us." Sanji shuffles his feet shyly, it was rare for Sanji to be so shy, it was cute.

"Mama, we brought you food," Niji says as he runs to Judge at the corner of the room. Judge sets-up the lap table and settles it on their bed when Sora had sat up.

"Dad and Sanji made it. Mostly it was Sanji because Dad didn't do much after he cut himself and it came out fine, we think." Niji explains the green salad with sweet potatoes and a bowl of red meat stew with a cheese strip on top.

"This looks promising. Thank you, boys." She says and looks at Sanji's hands. They were littered with band-aids and plasters, and Judge's had one as well, on his index finger. "It looks delicious. I'll dig in now."

She takes a bite of the salad. It was bland. They forgot the vinaigrette, but that's alright, the sweet potato was flavorful enough to provide extra flavor. Then the stew, which was too salty and over seasoned with oregano, yet after everything, she ate it all.

"It was delicious!" She says. Sanji beams. A happy smile, she was so happy to see him so dedicated to this hobby. While he may not turn out to become the scientist they had expected of him, he may have a future as a chef or a food developer. Sora wouldn't mind it, but he has responsibilities to his kingdom. He can't be like a hermit in the kitchen, so shouldn't she and her husband ever be hermits in their work. Look at her, already looking far into the uncertain future. Her smile turned serious.

Judge takes the tray from her lap to return to the cart and settles to sit beside her. "Why don't you two go out to get the desert in the kitchen. Sanji made a cake." Judge had mentioned to Sora, but she was still lost in thought. A whole day's worth of wallowing in thoughts can do that to her, he remembers the same to himself.

Once the boys were out, Judge takes Sora's hand and wakes her from her own mind. Sora returned with a startle, Judge was staring t her with worry.

"Sora we need to talk."

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

_To all the readers who _faved_ and commented, Thankyou! :D_


	5. C5: Sora, We Need to Talk

**C5: Sora, We Need to Talk**

"What do you want to talk about?"

Judge frowns, it was unlike her to skirt around this issue, but he was the man of the house, of the kingdom, and he has to start, if not, then who would?

"About Sanji." She flinches.

The room was silent until Judge stood up to close the door. "It might take a while for them to get back here. We don't have much time, and I think we'll need to talk about this again sometime, but I just want you to know Sora, that I don't blame you for anything."

It was only then that Sora looked-up angry and offended, "IT WAS MY FAULT." She bursts, tears pour down her eyes as he repeats the words that had been plaguing her all day. "It is my fault, it was my mess, it was my project, my children and my research." She started it with Reiju and she ended it with Yonji. Out of her five trials, only one, one was strange, one was special, and she blames herself for playing with their lives.

"And I let you." Judge's reply as he throws himself over Sora. "I'm your partner, they're my children too. You told me when you had injected the boys, that you were enhancing them, their lineage factors… I let you, despite knowing, and I am to blame for this too."

"No, no… It's not your fault. You're a wonderful father Judge. It's all me. I'm the…"

"You are not a horrible mother Sora. You care, you love your kids. Yet you are a scientist, we are scientists, it's in the way we think. If Sanji were just a number, he would be 20% of a hundred. Our success rate is 80% Sora, but we aren't just scientists. We are parents. We care for him." Judge replies. "He isn't just a science experiment, they aren't just data- they aren't things that we can throw away and re-start with new samples. They are our children, we are responsible for them."

"I KNOW" Sora knows. She loves them too. They aren't just numbers and mass and results. They are kids. Beautiful, talented, wonderful, happy kids. They are loved by so many, with so much. They were her treasures, worth more than all the stars in the sky and all the mysteries in the world.

Sora cries harder. This is more than science, this was her mistake as a mother, as a wife. How could Judge understand the burden she holds? She chose the procedure, then approved and chose the ingredients of the drug. She planned the tests and checked the test results. She was the head scientist of the whole thing. She is also their mother. He is the father. Their blood runs through them. She had failed him in a way. She sobs. She had failed her husband too.

"I'm Sorry Judge. I'm sorry." She says, like a mantra. "There is nothing to be sorry about." He follows, as many times as she says her apologies.

"I've failed you."

"You failed no one."

"I made a mistake."

"Everyone does."

"I feel like I've dragged you down with me."

"I don't mind, as long as I'm with you."

"I'm a terrible mother."

"You've done nothing bad to them, nothing you mean to be bad."

"Sanji lacks emotions."

"He will grow some, in time." Something that also bothers him gravely.

"What if he doesn't?"

"Then we'll have to work hard to explain to him, don't we."

"What if he… ends up endangering the others?" The last thoughts on Sora's mind. Lack of some emotions, lack of pain, lack of knowing the feelings that would hurt you can be destructive to ones-self and the ones around you.

Should Sanji be offended and… Sora didn't want to think about it. The possibility of Sanji accidentally hurting anyone of his siblings. Sanji is stronger and smarter but does not mean he is in-control and wise. Sanji is unstable. He has mood swings and he needs to keep in his sleeping schedule and medication. Judge could not form an answer, also thinking about it.

The couple rested in their embrace, while Sora had said everything in her mind in short sentences, while Judge returns with an answer or comfort, this was the hardest to answer.

"What if he hurts his siblings, his friends in the future?"

"We can only pray he doesn't. That he knows enough of love to know not to hurt them."

"I wish I didn't enhance anyone. That we had normal children for kids so that this wouldn't have happened."

"Then we would have left them in a neutral island, and they would not have been able to sail with us. Just as my father had left me at Karakuri." Sora tightens her grip on his shirt. Of course, they would have. Children on the seas, on Germa territory no less. The danger was so high. If not to be killed by an enemy, then the sea is the calmer fate.

"You did the right choice Sora. Ichiji could have died when he got dragged by the yacht."

"But he didn't." Sora answers this time.

"The damage to Niji when he climbed a tower and fell could have been fatal."

"He is such a daredevil our second son." Sora says fondly, still shedding tears, but less of the sadness she felt when she had started.

"Yonji could have hurt himself worse when the boys were playing on the swings."

"He didn't. He only scraped his skin. Soon, the exoskeleton would be tough enough that they wouldn't ever bleed with something as simple as scratches and scrapes."

"Reiju and Sanji are such careful children. Sanji only gets cuts when he's cooking or baking. I'm beginning to think that's all he ever does now."

"I think it's wonderful to have a chef in the family," Sora adds. "This way you wouldn't have to cook for me, and we can just ask Sanji."

"And I was beginning to think you liked my cooking."

"I would like it more if the seasonings were right. By the way, your salad didn't have vinaigrette and the stew had too much oregano."

"Eh? Why didn't you say something?"

"I thought it was delicious since you both worked so hard to make it for me."

Judge breaks the hug to look Sora in the eyes. "I meant what I said, Sora."

Sora still couldn't fully look him in the eyes so she looks instead to his lips, anything but his eyes which were filled with so much love and understanding, something she feels she doesn't deserve right now. "I know you do. But I still feel like I've failed you. That I've failed my children."

"How do I change it? How can I prove that you failed no one?"

Sora couldn't respond. Luckily for her, the door suddenly opened to show that their kids were walking-in, Sanji was carrying a slice of cake and a fork. While Niji was carefully balancing a cup of tea and Reiju a teapot. Ichiji and Yonji following behind, sheepish.

"Oh, I thought you'd have baked a whole cake this morning Sanji?" Judge asked.

"I did… but these idiots decided to eat it for an afternoon snack."

"This is all that's left. Sorry mama, we didn't know it was for you." Ichiji had spoken for Reiju, Yonji and himself.

"That's alright."

"Were you crying mama?" Yonji asked from beside Ichiji, already making his way to get closer to his mother. He was still holding Ichiji's hand, so he ended-up following as well. Then Sanji and Niji and finally Reiju. When all five kids were there, they got Yonji and Ichiji up to sit at her other side, while Sanji tried to feed her cake to feel better while Niji and Reiju left the tea and pot at the night table and climbed the bed too.

Judge should have scolded them, told them to come back later when things were less complicated since Sora had been just so helpless a while back and her eyes were still so red. She was such a strong woman, he thinks. Already smiling and taking care of their kids despite her earlier break-down. And the fact that she'd been blaming herself all this time with what happened to Sanji, and his test results and reports.

"Did Dad do something dumb again?"

"Sanji, words!" Reiju scolds. "Where have you been hearing this?"

"Dad." All four boys respond.

Sora could only laugh at Judge's pout. Mumbling something about not cursing often, or not in front of the children at least.

* * *

Later that night, with the moon nesting high in the sky, Sora lies awake as she thought about Judge's final question. "How can I prove that you've failed no one?"

She shifts her position to the side, facing her sleeping husband, snoring evenly- the sound she now finds comforting. In the past, she used to tease him about it, that she couldn't sleep because of his snoring. Now she finds it as soothing as the ticking of the clock. As reassuring as his heartbeat when she presses her ear closer to his chest. She knows her boys snore as well, but not as loud as Judge. Yonji and Niji being competitively loud even in their unconsciousness.

She thinks more about the talk they had, the question and the day. She thinks about sheep and blessings, and holidays nearby when she'd want to dress-up her kids. She thinks about colors and styles, and the boys should definitely wear the same outfit, but in different colors. She thinks about birthdays and anniversaries and cakes and parties… Yet there was no answer to his question. The things that bring her mind into turmoil and her heart into a mess. Then she dissects the question. Something easier to answer with her head than her heart.

If I did not fail anyone, why do I feel as if I have?

How do I fix the feeling of failure?

What can I do to fix my errors?

What are my errors?

Who are involved in the situation?

Why had there been an error in the first place?

Is there a treatment or medicine?

With new questions in her mind and energy to spare, she shifts again, looks as the night sky across their room, and thinks. That was all she did that night.


	6. C6: Observation 16

**C6: OBSERVATION 1.6**

* * *

Ichiji was a silent child. He wasn't fond of using words. He would rather act than discuss, and Sora seldom wonders if it is a good thing or a bad thing.

Ichiji's words were sparse, but every word he says is taken with large grains of salt, especially those directed to his siblings.

When Ichiji plays, he plays with all his strength, with all his energy. To everything else, he breezes through with higher than average scores, and that was fine.

Ichiji is smart. He is as observant as Reiju, but less manipulative and more secretive. When Reiju knows something, it becomes obvious she knows, by the tilt of her lips or the manner she hides her smile with her hand. Almost as if she tries to hold herself back from spilling the information. But Ichiji… One could never be sure if he knows about it or not.

The first time he'd seen the bright red strand of hair on himself, he thought nothing of it. He was 6, and decided to pluck it out in fear that his brothers might see it sticking out of his blonde locks.

But then he sees the colors on Niji and Yonji. Bright Blue and Grass Green looking starkly out of place in their blonde locks. He told them to pluck it out like he had done with his. It wouldn't have been odd if Reiju's hair started turning pink when she was 6, but Ichiji never remembered Reiju ever being blonde. She already had bright pink hair as they looked into their deepest earliest memories of their sister.

"Why do we have to pluck it Ichiji? I don't want it to hurt." Niji had complained, none the less, he sat still so that Ichiji can pull the few blue strands out of his head. Flinching only when Ichiji had plucked a few too many or too harshly. While he was sitting on the bed, Yonji was sitting on the floor, and Niji was pulling the green stands out as Ichiji had been doing to his.

"Because it's odd. Mama and Dad already found something off with Sanji and Mama had been sad for months about it." Ichiji explained. "If we show-up with colored hair, Mama might get sad again."

"I don't want Mama to be sad." Yonji supplies. He flinches as Niji tugs, Niji was rarely gentle.

"I wanna trade. I want Ichiji to pull my hair." Yonji complains.

"Why? What's wrong with me pulling your hair?"

"You're too rough. I hate it." Yonji punches Niji's leg. Niji knees Yonji's shoulder. Ichiji tells them to stop. "How come Sanji isn't here? If he were here he'd be the one pulling my hair, not Niji." Yonji complains.

"Well, he just doesn't have the same problem as us." Ichiji contemplated, "Where is Sanji?"

At that moment, Sanji enters with Sora. He was holding her hand as he points to his brothers. "See, I told you they were pulling their hairs," Sanji told their mother.

Sora rushes to the three and stops them. "No. Boys, why did you pull your hairs?" She looks to the strands they've collected. Little bits of bright reds, blues and greens.

"Ichiji said it was odd. And the last time you saw something odd with Sanji, you were sad for a whole month." Niji tells. "And you, how come your hair isn't getting any colors like ours? We're brothers! You're supposed to have the same!"

Sanji flinches. How can he tell them that they really weren't? That he was different from them in more than their hair. "But I was getting the colors too. See." Sanji turns around and raises the underside of his hair, turning a heavy coating of black at the roots.

Even Sora was shocked. She didn't know they were getting their colors this late. She thought they may never get the hair change like Reiju. Her whole hair transitioned when she was 2. It only took 2 days before the whole blonde turned bright pink, and even then she was expecting they would turn purple soon, yet it didn't and stayed pink. Frankly, she was expecting the boys to be blonde all their life.

While it is odd, it isn't as strange as Sanji's case of indifference to pain.

"Since when?" Sora had asked. Ichiji wanted to answer, but he was… scared. Scared that their mother might get mad, or their dad might get mad at them. Then scared that they might get mad-sad again like when they found out Sanji can't feel pain or doesn't mind the pain.

"Mine started a week ago. I pluck them out every day." Ichiji confessed. Better say it now than never.

"Ours just started two days ago." Niji explained for him and Yonji. The boys looked down at their feet. Sad, scared, fearing something… like feeling guilty but not?

"I think mine had been like this for a year." Sanji explains. But it's only the roots at the back, and my hair is still yellow at the ends. I think they won't change anymore unless I cut my hair." Sanji explains his.

"Boys. I'm not mad." The three look up at Sora who was smiling at them. She kneels down and opens up her arms. "Come here all of you, and give mama a hug!" The boys didn't hesitate, they all ran to hug their mother. Not gently enough it seems, as the impact of the three, plus Sanji scooting gently, had still knocked out some air off of her chest. After she'd hugged and kissed each of her boys, she invited them over to sit on Ichiji's bed so she could explain their cases.

"Well, since you guys are genetically enhanced humans, you guys will eventually get special powers only inherent to your DNA. Each one of you is special, that's why all your hair colors are different. You may one-day wake-up suddenly wanting to blow-up things with your hands, or releasing electric charges or doing something normal people wouldn't be able to do. Unlike devil fruits powers, you can still swim, like Reiju."

"But Reiju wasn't blonde. She has pink hair since forever." Ichiji asks "And she doesn't have any special powers."

Sora sighs. "Boys, follow me." She stands and goes to Reiju's room. She knocks first, but since no one was there, she enters.

The boys proceed with caution, as they rarely enter their big sister's room. It was too girly they said. And while it was neat and orderly, the boys prefer to stay at Niji's room just to get a rise out of him. The blue was also a nicer color than the girly pink, glaring red and the bright yellow of their other three siblings.

She goes to a cabinet and pulls out Reiju's baby pictures.

"This is Reiju when she was born." She shows them a Royal portrait of her and Judge. Between them was a tiny bundle of cloth and thick blonde hair.

"Reiju was blonde?!" The boys crowd around to see the picture.

"Hmm, her hair started turning pink when she was 2. It only took two whole days before the whole hair became bright pink."

"Two whole days?!" The boys had said in skepticism and awe.

Sora continues to tell them a story. "When Reiju was 2, she was poisoned." The boys began to pale. What, what is this story? Why haven't they ever heard of this before?

"The day before Reiju's hair turned pink, she had ingested poison. There was a new chef, but it turns out the chef was an assassin from another kingdom. They wanted Reiju dead. We were too late when we realized he had given Reiju enough poison to kill an elephant."

"But Reiju is alive. She's not dead." Sanji asks. There's no way Reiju could be dead or a ghost. She can hug him and she eats his food. Reiju is warm and she talks to them.

"She is alive. We found out later that her special power is poison tolerance. She can eat any type of poison, digest it and excrete it in one way or another." Sora explains. "One day, you boys can do something like that too."

"Wahhh! Can we shoot lasers off our eyes?" Yonji asks. "I wanna shoot lasers and be super strong! AND and FLY! I wanna be able to fly!"

"You wish. I'm gonna be the one to shoot lasers!" Niji jests. "I want super speed and I wanna shoot bullets off my hands and make things explode!" Niji says. The boys think about superpowers until they ended up playing Superheroes. Sanji was forced to play the baker civilian that they have to save. They also had to save his cake in the oven of course. Which ended up with them having to wait for the cake to finish before they could save him.

Ichiji walks up to his mom while the others were playing. Ichiji wasn't one for words, so he does things with actions instead. He goes up to her, gives her a hug, then leaves to go play with his siblings.

Sora watches him go. Already having the idea he wanted to say. 'Sorry for not telling. I'll tell you next time.' She likes to think that's what he meant. Ichiji may not be a man of words, but he knows how to convey his thoughts.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Thank you **superfanman2017** for your ideas!

To all my readers, thank you for reading! The story is halfway done, and I just need to type everything down. I estimate 12 chapters and an epilogue on Tottland.

This is not Beta-ed and I own nothing but an OOC Vinsmoke Family. :D Enjoy the read!


	7. C7: Observation 27

**C7: OBSERVATION 2.7**

* * *

Niji is a noisy thing, compared to his elder brother Ichiji. He is more brash, more mouthy, more expressive in his features and he can't hold a secret.

"Mama, Yonji hid his test results in his pillowcase." He would tell Sora loudly when he entered the door, before even greeting her good morning.

"Mama, Dad. Today Ichiji fell off a tower and didn't tell anyone." Niji would whisper during dinner "He broke the floor at Snail 23."

"Mama, Reiju and Sanji went fishing at the back of the tower. They caught dinner! Also, Sanji may have broken a rudder when he fell overboard and swam back here." Niji would say out of nowhere when he's spending his time in the laboratory with Sora.

"Mama, Dad. I don't feel so well." Niji says as his face hits the table and his whole body spasms.

"Is it poison?" Sora quickly stands up to inspect Niji.

"Get the kids out of here. Reiju, you stay. You can still extract the poison from him." Sora had ordered as she scooped Niji up to see his mouth foaming.

"How do I extract it Mama?" Reiju was crying, tears coming down in large wet globs, but she is such a brave girl. She holds her trembles and approaches her brother. Sitting beside his head to do what Sora will instruct her to do.

"Suck the poison out. Place your lips on his, take a deep breath, concentrate and suck as much poison as you can." Sora had instructed as she fixes Niji's position. "And don't pull out until you think you have it all... The poison won't taste good, but you're the only one who can do this Reiju."

She nods and steels herself. She can do this. "For Niji." she whispers.

The incidents of poison were getting higher. Most of the time, Reiju and Sora eats first, so Reiju can tell. That lunch, the first to eat that day was Niji, as Judge was busy and Sora was the only parent with them for lunch. The whole batch of soup was poisoned and the only one who ate it and was affected was Niji. Sora didn't know what to think, was it good or bad that only one of them were hurt?

Reiju had sucked the poison out, as much as she could, in 40 seconds. Sora did not let her try again in fear that she might exhasut herself, however, that was enough to stabilize Niji. He won't die, Sora says to them. Sora says to ensure herself as well. Niji won't die.

He was placed in the infirmary until further notice. He hasn't woken up yet, but when he does, Sora will tell him he will never go through that again. Sora leaves Yonji, Reiju and Ichiji with Niji. Sanji tells her everything he knows that day in the kitchen.

Sanji was in and out of the kitchen the whole morning, and he instantly pointed out the people who cooked and were near the soup. Sanji says there was one guy who placed a strange ingredient in it. A chef he calls Mr. Skee.

They eventually found the assassin- he put up a fight too. By the end of the scuffle, they got him arrested and in chains and presented before the King and Queen waiting for a sentence. The man was from Tottland, but his orders were from a man in East Blue. The calmest seas who made an enemy of the wrong country. Judge exclaims. He grit his teeth. Sora calmed him down before the man, but that doesn not mean the queen is more merciful. No.

The queen was livid.

He was one of Sanji's friends, a skilled pastry chef who taught him how to make croissants and danishes. He was a good man to Sanji, informal and honest, despite knowing that he was the Germa's prince, and one of his targets. Sora knew the man, as Sanji had told her all about him and his lessons. She was a fool to believe he was good without a background check.

When the assassin looked Sanji in the eyes and begged for his life to be spared, Sanji only looked, but there was no mercy in those eyes.

It was Sora who did the sentence. "DEATH" she had said, "For the Crimes of Attempted Murder and Treason to the Royal Family. You would have killed us all but Reiju." Sora added. "You wouldn't have succeded, but you still hurt one of my children. As a mother, I can't forgive you. As a queen, I can't pardon you."

He called, one final time for Sanji to appeal to save him, he begged and pleaded. He didn't want to poison the soup, he said. He was forced by the man from East Blue. He spins a tale about a lover of his. A lover Sanji seems to know, a tale he must have told Sanji.

Sanji doesn't move. Sora could only stare as the man breaks free from the guards and runs for Sanji.

The guards take out their guns, ready to shoot. Sanji only watches, frozen still as the man grabs his hands and begs on his knees. Sora screams Sanji's name, an indication for the guards to take the man down. Kill the man who dares to touch her child, their prince.

The guards shoot- 3 bullets, straight for his back and the back of his head. The man dies in front of Sanji. His eyes losing their life as a whole chunk of his head went flying with muscle and blood, hands still clamping on Sanji's wrists. He falls to the ground, lifeless.

The man dies. Sanji only stares. The blood pools around the man and Sanji's shoes fast, and some splatters were on Sanji's yellow and white clothes.

Sora takes Sanji in his arms, leads him away from the corpse. Her heart was beating so fast, to the thought that she might lose him, that the assassin may have hurt Sanji too. Yet Sanji was calm. He was only confused, Sora thinks.

"Why isn't he moving?" Sanji had asked between his mother's kisses. "That looks really uncomfortable." He says about the man who fell with his head to the ground, and who's arms are crossed over his chest. Face swimming in his own blood.

"Honey, don't look. It's all fine. Everything is going to be fine."

"But Mr. Skee is sleeping on the ground. He'll complain about it when he wakes up in the morning to make breakfast." Sora gulps. Of course, this is the first time he's seen death.

"Sanji, he won't be getting-up for breakfast. He's dead." Sora explains. "He tried to kill Niji a while ago, so we killed him."

"Oh… So he's not gonna teach me how to make crepes tomorrow?" Sora shakes her head, no.

"Oh, ok. I'll just look at the book then." Sanji says as he breaks free from his mother's hold. He takes one last look at the assassin, Mr. Skee. A man he's known for years, a man he treats as his friend. Sora explects him to cry, or at least realize that he would never see the man again. Yet none of that crosses Sanji's features.

Sanji walks away, without a single feature of sadness in his face, he was even smiling when he said to himself that he will try to make crepes for snacks instead and surprise Niji when he wakes up. Sora looks at him as he exits, not a single emotion of sadness nor concern for the fallen man. The man who died before his eyes. Indifferent to the death of one of his friends.

For a moment, Sora shudders. She realizes she is scared of her own son, her own doing.

She wonders if he'll be the same when she dies. She shivers. She was scared to be unloved by one of the things she loves the most.

Later that day Niji wakes up.

He wakes to static and electricity. With every snap of his muscles, he makes a spark, he feels the stings. Loud humming in his head that he complains about, and charges on idle at the tips of his fingers, oddly suiting for him. Electricity.

His hair all blue and electric. Electric Blue. He called it.

Fitting- Sora thought. Destructive.

Well, she'll have to draft a training plan for Niji to control his powers. She wonders, will her other boys' powers also be this powerful?

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

There we go, it's starting. The Two Fools Arc is setting itself into motion.

Thank you to my readers and reviewers. I love your comments and they are what keeps this fic going.


	8. C8: Observation 48

**C8: OBSERVATION 4.8**

* * *

Yonji was their youngest, and he acts like it.

He was active and always looking for attention. If he isn't with Sanji he's with Ichiji. If he isn't with Ichiji, he's with Reiju if he isn't with Reiju, he's probably alone. (He doesn't like Niji much.)

Sora and Reiju also finds themselves spoiling him. Sometimes Sanji also gets roped into spoiling him, despite Yonji's pleads to have no effect on him. Sanji usually gives up when everyone else already spoiled him rotten.

After Ichiji made his first explosion with some type of light which came from from his hands, this made Sanji and Yonji the last two who haven't manifested their powers yet. However, Yonji's hair was already green until the ends, and Sora had expected complete development by the time that happens. It only took a year for them to completely develop after the first signs were seen. The quintuplets are now 7 year-olds.

Today, Judge finally had time to spend the time with his family, after a year of planning his revenge on the man from East Blue, which they found out was from a kingdom named Cozia which Judge plans to visit and destroy. But that's a talk for later.

Today, Judge is playing sports with his sons. His two sons had already developed their abilities but were still training to use it. So he was wrestling with Ichiji and Niji.

The scientists had developed gloves and a prototype suit resistant to the princes' laser/ light explosions and electricity, but also resistant to acid, fire and ice. Today was a test-run on the suit before they use the same material for all their uniforms. While the gloves were holding-up against Ichiji and Niji vs. Judge, Yonji decided he also wanted to wrestle, and not fence with Sanji.

So Yonji asked his mom if he can wrestle with Niji and Ichiji.

"Mama, I wanna wrestle with Ichiji and Niji and Dad. I don't wanna fence with Sanji." He says as he throws his wooden sword to the ground.

"I know you want to join them, but you don't have powers like Ichiji and Niji."

"I don't need powers! I can handle wrestling just fine without them. I'm strong."

Sora chuckles as she watches her youngest flex his arms. Strong indeed, but not strong enough, her mind adds. She shakes off the thought. No mother would say that to their child, with the tome in her mind like they didn't meet her expectations. Sora scrunches her nose, disappointed with herself before she goes back to smiling and telling her youngest to wait for his turn.

"How about you spar with me?" Sanji joins in, as he sets down his wooden sword and holds his stance. Feet apart and fists in front of his face, a boxer's stance.

Before Sora can protest, Yonji had already thrown his first punch, hitting Sanji right at his left arm. His first punch that made a crater on the ground where Sanji stood. Sanji didn't even budge, but the crater could very well show just how much strength was in that punch.

The blonde brother grins at the challenge. "Not bad Yonji, let's see if you can keep up."

Sanji throws his punch aimed at Yonji's face. The greenette blocks with his open palm, but Yonji also keeps his stance, not even moving despite the visible force form the air and the crater that formed on the ground.

At this point, the battle at the other area had stopped to stare at the two other fighters at the other arena. Sanji and Yonji were throwing kicks and punches all over the area. When they missed, the floor they punched would crack and crumble, then they hit, the ground would also crumble under their feet. It was a power battle, Judge recognized.

Both weren't using their speed. While Sanji is faster than Yonji, he wasn't using his speed to get the upper hand. They were simply playing, play-fighting. Their attacks were slow but would deal large damage.

Sora watches the two with rapt attention. It makes sense for Sanji to have this much power, but Ichiji, Niji and Yonji were with the same physical results up until 8 months ago. Ichiji's powers had given him control to plasma and light, Niji's powers had given him control to electricity and speed. Sanji's has yet to emerge and Yonji… Sora's thoughts were interrupted when Yonji had suddenly grabbed hold of Sanji's shoulders and had thrown him with what looked like his detached arms.

Sanji was thrown a fair distance to the direction of a tower, luckily Sanji was mobile enough in the air to make it so that his feet lands on the tower as he propels himself back to Yonji's direction.

However, Yonji was distracted by his arms suddenly "detaching" from their sockets and "returning" back into full functionality. He was staring at them, trying to figure out what had happened, when Sanji came bulldozing him back. Sanji came from a 250-degree angle and had head-butted Yonji down to the concrete of Germa's pavement.

The spar ended with both boys 7 feet deep in the ground, with an impressive 12 meters distance of up-tuned pavement.

Sora was the first at the scene. Sanji emerged first, but he went back down the hole to get Yonji who was tired, but still conscious.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Niji cheers as he sees them.

"Yonji! Your arms grew longer! How did that happen?" Sora had asked as he looked both boys over for any injuries. Of course, they had none with their exoskeletons protecting them, but a mother can worry.

"I don't know either Mama! But that was GREAT!" Yonji tries to extend his arms again but fails to get any results. "It was like I had an extra arm and it is long but wasn't touching the bendy points! Then it went shwww! and then it went back- clack!" Yonji tries to explain, but he can't really, not with his limited scientific vocabulary.

"That's not all." Sanji adds. "Yonji is the strongest."

"What do you mean Sanji?"

"My first punch, that was my strongest. He has super strength now." Sanji looks at his hand as he makes a fist, tightening it and relaxing again. "That's his special power. Mechanical enhancements."

"Mechanical enhancements… of course! Both Ichiji and Niji were showing elemental enhancements comparable to logia. Yet with Reiju's affinity to poison, she is comparable to a paramecia, then who is to say that Yonji can't show any traits similar to paramecia devil fruits? Who's to say he won't show signs of being a zoan either?" Sora, without thinking, had said her hypothesis out loud.

Judge heard and agreed. There was the chance that the two boys wouldn't show the same type of powers as Ichiji and Niji, but it doesn't mean they would be any weaker. After all, power isn't measured by the kind it is, it is measured by how well it is used.

"But I wanted to shoot lasers like Ichiji!" Yonji had whined. Of course, they would complain about not getting the powers they want. That comes with life as well. It's the job of the parents to properly explain that life won't always give you what you want, but you'll have to work hard to use what was given.

Before the parents could speak, Sanji was already beside Yonji. "Well, your power may not be like Ichiji's, but your powers are yours. I don't even know my powers yet, but your powers are useful. You're like a- a winch!"

"A winch?" Yonji didn't know what it was. "What's a winch?"

"It's a machine that helps people pull-up the heaviest things when they're building towers. It's like a crane, but the roll-y part where the wire coils. Ehhh... When we grow up, you'll be the strongest between the five of us!" Sanji had explained, at least tried to explain before he de-railed to tell Yonji how he'll probably be the strongest between the siblings.

Yonji pouts and crosses his arms. "But I still won't be able to shoot lasers with my eyes, or fly." The Vinsmoke family deadpanned. Oh, their spoiled baby brother/son. Somehow, they just can't say no to the boy.

That's when Judge got the idea of attaching jet boots to the armor suit. Well, at least they'll be able to fly with this.

Spoiled rotten indeed.

* * *

**_Author's Notes:_**

The youngest of a happy family usually gets spoiled, and they usually have a favorite sibling.


	9. C9: Observation 09

**C9: OBSERVATION 0.9**

* * *

Reiju rarely asked for anything, content with all the toys in her room and the dresses and clothes she is given. She is appreciative of the food she eats, the lessons she learns which Sora had set for her as the eldest daughter of Germa.

From a young age, Reiju already understood that she would not have a chance at the crown, made more certain by the birth of her four brothers. Yet this did not condemn her to a harsh life, in fact, Reiju prefers it this way. She has loving parents whom she idolizes, younger brothers who loves her and likes to spend time with her and she would tell them again and again that she loves them too, because that's what they've always given her, and she is content.

She says she is content. Her mind says she is.

Reiju fiddles her pencil on her right hand and taps her finger on the table with the other, listening to music from a tone dial as she reads her given science homework. At 11, Reiju was already given Anatomy and Botany, which Reiju admits, is boring as heck.

She knows that the Kingdom of Science, cloning science no less, requires that the royal family also become scientists, who understands the complexities of the cells, genes and the human anatomy, more so in the Grand Line where there are multiple races to remember and memorize. Reiju understands. She gets it perfectly, well- almost, as she just can't quite get a 100%. Her scores never really fall behind 90%, but 90 isn't perfect.

She may understand science, but that isn't her passion. It's what is required of her.

She looks at the diagram of the plant and the human body, and the assignment required her to differentiate plant anatomy from human anatomy and create a hypothetical essay with the illustration of what a plant man may become- no doubt her mother's question because she likes to get creative.

Reiju, if she were any other 11 year-old child, she would have drawn something so virtually impossible that it would look like a friendly monster made of roots and bark and produces flowers from its fingers like branches. Reiju is not like a regular 11 year old. So instead, she draws a man with skin that is constructed to absorb chlorophyll like a plant. Who's system had xylem and phloem in addition to its circulatory system connected to its digestive tract so that the man will not require roots, and an androgynous system that requires asexual production, either in producing seeds to forming spores. No doubt she will pass, she thinks, as this plant man may be the most efficient of its kind compared to other races.

She looks out the window, over the towers and walls of Germa, out into the wide blue sea that changes its scenery ever so often, she never gets tired of it. Her room was located at one of the tallest towers. She smiles to herself at a thought. A damsel in a tower, but she is far from distressed. She is happy here.

She says she is content. Her heart says she isn't.

"Sanji, what have you made today?" Reiju asks as she sits up the stool at the center of the kitchen isle Judge had made for Sanji's cooking lessons. The kids take their lessons once a week every Wednesday afternoon, but Sanji had taken a particular liking to making food. Sora and Judge were very supportive, and both thought it would be good for his mood swings. He can exhaust his energy and concentration on the food instead of destructive sports like fencing all day which he still practices at noon till night.

"Oh Reiju-nii, today I made muffins. It's still in the oven, but give me 12 minutes and it'll be ready to eat."

Sanji takes a look at the oven again, to make sure the muffins were baking correctly. "Is there anything you'd like to drink with this Reiju-nii?"

"Cold juice would be nice." Sanji nods to get the juice from the cooler, as well as ice and a cup from the storage areas." Reiju stares at Sanji with a smile, looking at him with awe as he'd already figured out what he wants to do with his life since he had already given up at the position to be King of Germa 66.

He looks to happy in his world, she thinks as he mixes the juice and ice in a shaker, pours it in a glass and cuts a lemon to place at the cup's edge with a sprig of mint. He serves it to her with little skill, but what can you expect from a 7 year-old?

"How do you do it?" Reiju asked with a smile. This confused Sanji, what did she mean?

"How do I do what?"

"Work in the kitchen, do the lessons, train and not disappoint our parents." Reiju finds herself spilling, sounding more like a silent drawl than her usual sweet eloquent voice. She never really put-up a guard with her brothers, maybe except for Niji because he can't keep a secret.

"I don't know about that. I mean, I used to think I may have been disappointing Mama and Dad - especially when I told them I didn't want to be a scientist, but I still like science..."

"You told them you didn't want to be a scientist?" Reiju was shocked, panicked even. How could Sanji just tell them? They were the next generation of the kingdom, they are required to be scientists, politicians and leaders. It's their responsibility. It's what they were created to become. Creators of life in cloning and enhancing the human body. They were created to keep the work of their parents alive and developing, to take over the North Blue and maybe the whole of Grand Line and prove to the world that the power of Germa surpasses all.

The atmosphere started to turn serious. Sanji didn't think much of what he'd said, but Reiju must have though of something more conflicting by the way her smile was completely wiped away as she stares at her lap and clenches her fist.

"Reiju-nii." Sanji snapped her out of her thoughts. It's when she saw his baffled look that she started to cry. Sanji wouldn't understand, she reasoned. She knew Sanji lacked empathy, he could only be confused and try to understand it. Her Mama had told her all about her -failure; so that she won't repeat it the next time she wants to enhance children from birth.

Sanji's lack of emotion and dissociation from the feeling of pain was not part of her expectation, hence a failure. Yet in Reiju's opinion, lack of empathy and a high pain tolerance would be ideal for a soldier, but Sanji wasn't a soldier… He is her brother. Someone she loves dearly and unconditionally, despite knowing he may not love them as they love him.

"It's nothing." She shakes it off. She chooses to be a scientist, for her kingdom and her family. There is no nobler job than that as a princess. Sanji is different, Sanji is special. She repeats her Mama's words.

"Reiju-nii. So how's your homework?" He'd asked.

"It is finished. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's one of the things you like to do. So I thought…" Sanji tries to explain himself. There is no need to explain. She didn't dislike doing science, she could do experiments but it does not mean she wants to do it for the rest of her life.

"It went well. I was tasked to explain what a plant man's anatomy might be, so I did."

"That's awesome Reiju-nii! If I were given the same assignment, I'd probably end up drawing a treeman with roots for legs and branches for arms. I'm not as good at anatomy unless it's about food." Sanji laughs, trying to make the conversation lighter again. Reiju has other plans.

"Sanji." She started. "How did you know, that you wanted to be a chef?" She asked, but internally berating herself on asking him this. Why was she even asking him? He can't even explain how he feels, how he doesn't feel? Yet why is he more certain than her? More confident in the path he's taking.

He must think she's stupid, for having a mid-life crisis at the age of 11.

"Reiju-nii. I'm not sure I want to be a chef. I'm too young and its too soon to decide." Sanji's laid back answer as his eyes drifted to the ceiling in thought. Reiju was shocked, but her face remained neutral, well hidden as she always does. She thought for sure that he was sure.

Well, Sanji isn't really sure. He just knows he likes to cook. He likes the motions of cooking. He likes how the batter rises, how it changes in matter and how happy other people become when they see his cooking, and how he somehow feels happy when they eat it and praise him. It's just that cooking makes him happy, like his family. Almost the same feeling as talking with Reiju about things, playing with his brothers and cooking for his mama and dad. But cooking amazes him, it's like magic. Adding color to water, changing the state of matter, making bread rise, cooking meat in different ways, preparing vegetables into something amazing. It's wonderful.

"I see…" Reiju says as her smile returns, cold and not as charming. A smile that suits her name oddly well. Yet Sanji knows that's just how the girls in his family smile. It's familiar, he thinks. "Thank you, Sanji."

"Glad I could help… whatever that I did was." He was confused. Sanji would never understand women, but he respects them. Reiju and Mama are great and smart and kind, so he'll be like that to them too. He'll show them what they show him because that's how he understands love.

Love is warmth, and hugs and forgiveness and care. Tenderness and gentleness, stern and yet soft. Good. They are good- and so love must be good too.

* * *

Later that day, Reiju asks her parents for a violin. Sora was curious, Judge was baffled.

Why would Reiju want a violin? Judge asks, not certain why she would be interested in music.

No one liked music in Germa, no one liked it enough to pursue it.

The royal family never found it necessary to keep a musician in the kingdom.

It was a distraction to science.

It was an art that never developed in science.

It was unnecessary...

"Why would you want a violin, my little angel?" He'd kneeled down to grab her and lift her up as she presses herself closer to her father's large chest.

Reiju was getting bigger, and he was getting older, he said to himself. Judge almost laments, lost in his thoughts of his little girl when she was born, barely bigger than his arm. Now there she is, heavy and settling herself on his arm like a pink cat. Reiju barely asks for anything but hugs and kisses and attention; Then much less attention after the boys were born, as she had gotten four extra attention seekers to attend to. So now it was Judge who entertains her request because whatever his little angel wants, he will surely get for her. Her answer baffles him still, but he understands.

"There are no musicians in Germa Dad." she stated the obvious as she smiled at them both "Then I would like to be the first one."

Reiju wants to be the first musician on Germa…. Then so she shall be.

The very next day, Judge had given Reiju a violin set from a nearby island and had ordered her servants to pack two weeks worth of clothes for Reiju. For the next month, Reiju was taught how to play the violin at a music school and when she came back, she became the first and only musician on Germa.

During the day, she studies science, trained and played with her brothers. At noon and night, she was a violinist. She played the music that fills the halls of the castle. She held the melody that bounced off the walls of the Kingdom's pavements. From her tower, one of the highest places in the kingdom, the music would emerge at noon, and the whole kingdom would know it was Reiju.

She would get praises, would get attention, but not by something expected of her, and she realized maybe that's what she wanted all along. A piece of herself to express to the world, a part of herself to share. Behind the chilling smile and the sealed lips, the neutral face that gives nothing away, she had wanted so badly to tell her tales, and what better way to tell it than with music?

* * *

_** Author's**** Notes:**_

Oh wow! I got reviews! :D :D :D :.D I'm so happy- I cry.

**Echo**: Hahaha, actually, I'm not surprised there aren't many reviews. I only wrote this for the heck of it, and it's not something that has much *impact. I just really wanted a fanfic about Germa being a happy family, no matter how wrong the concept of their kingdom is from the start.

It suddenly came to me when I was reading the fanfiction Fiction (abt. Law and Sanji) by - just suddenly got inspired by her totally lame/hilarious versions of Germa. Have you read it? It's great!

Thank you for the praise, it made me really happy! :D

And to everyone else! Well, Sanji will meet Zeff and the Strawhats, no doubt about it, they will meet and I won't let this story end sadly without a happy resolution. But I did not say there won't be any angst.

Also, have I mentioned this was not beta-ed? So if you see an error, please write it so in the reviews. I've been using nothing but my own brain and Grammarly. :P

Oda owns One Piece. I own OOC Vinsmokes and the plot.


	10. C10:Observation 110

**C10: OBSERVATION 1.10**

* * *

The Red Line was huge. Ichiji's first thought as he laid his eyes upon the giant red mountain that separated the world. He looks to his siblings who were smiling and gaping in awe. Yonji's mouth was wide open as he looked up up up, looking for the end of the red rock which meets the sun and sky. Ichiji would have thought it was unclimbable until their father told them the Germa snails were capable of climbing the damn wall.

"Alright, every one strapped on?" Sora asks. The queen, princess and 4 princes were seated on their bolted chairs. Their mother making sure they were secured before they went up the wall and shifted their orientation to gravity. It's always the transition that is hard, the rest of the way is fairly enjoyable in her opinion.

The snail begins to ascend the wall, and when they were stable enough, Niji decided to unbuckle himself and jump up until he reached the tower window.

"The view is great! You guys come see too!" He hollers as the rest of his siblings unbuckle and jump, already used to the orientation of the snail. As the kids laugh and have fun, Sora stays buckled on the seat. She was no fool, and the space between the bolted seats and the window was too far for a regular human to jump.

"Mama, it's great here." Sanji peaks from the window. The rest of them might already be tower jumping. Sora worries, but she knows they won't be harmed. They have each other, and they won't let each other fall.

"Mama, would you like to see the view?" Sanji had asked.

Ichiji calls for his name, and Sora doesn't want to spoil their fun.

"No. I am fine here. Have fun, and stay safe dear." Sora had said. Instead of disappearing behind the wall as Sora had expected, Sanji jumps in and lands on his chair with the yellow number 3. The seat beside Sora who, while the King's chair is bolted down between the pink 0 and red 1.

He then proceeds to sit down and strap himself in.

"I'll keep you company, Mama."

"Oh, my sweet little boy." Sora gushes. "How is your first trip over the Red Line?" She starts the conversation.

"It's fun!" Sanji smiles. The ride was taking longer than they had expected, and the other Vinsmoke kids were still exploring outside. That's when Sanji had the idea to talk about a book he'd just read about.

"Mama, is this where we cross to get to All Blue?" Sora swears he saw Sanji's eyes sparkle. Yet her mouth moves to display her knowledge before she could process the meaning of the sparkle in his eyes.

"No dear. All-Blue is a mythical sea. It doesn't exist." Then she watches as the glimmer in him dim, and suddenly she realizes she'd done something very wrong.

"But- but… it might exist. There- there wouldn't be a book about it if it didn't, right?" Sanji stutters, hopeful. Sora battles with herself. Destroy the hope and let him live in his reality, or let him believe and get crushed by the illusion of his sanity? She thinks and thinks. A second spans to a minute before she makes her mind.

Sanji was already looking straight up the widow, not expecting an answer from her, she assesses, he doesn't want to bother her with triffled questions. Sora swears could visibly see it, the boy's wonder slowly dying by the dimming of his eyes, instead, they glisten with what could have been tears. Yet Sora knows, Sanji doesn't cry… He never did. They never saw and never heard him weep. His dreams were crushed by his own mother's words, and he doesn't shed a tear. Sora shudders. No. She will not let that happen. I will not crush his dreams, she states in her mind. With new found determination, she swears, her children will be happy and free to be whoever and whatever they want to be. They will do what they want, as long as its for the good of the kingdom or for their ultimate goals in life. Sora acts to her thoughts, but playful and with thought, as she is still their mother…

"Now that I think about it…" She starts, this got his attention.

"There is a possibility that…" This gets more of a reaction from him, hopeful. "But that's… no." And the changes in Sanji's expressions were so fast, it was almost comical, Sora thinks. "Sanji, do you think it's at the end of the world? At the end of the Grand Line, All Blue?"

"Yes! I think so too!" Sanji says with determination. "I want to see it someday! I want to find All Blue!" Sanji states it so confidently like it were easy. Sora begins to doubt herself, should she have told him? Should she tell him now?

Yet when Sanji talks about it, All Blue, about all the fishes he'd seen and tasted and how he wants to cook more of them. How he had planted the herbs in the botanical garden to cook with the fishes, Sora tells herself that she has time.

Sanji is still far too young. Sanji will understand when he's older, she says. So for now, she lets him dream. She lets Sanji talk about All Blue like it actually exists somewhere in the world. Maybe it does. With the way Sanji explains it, that there should be a point in the world where all the blues meet. Where there are falls and pools that transports the fishes, forces them to swim in an ocean from the four blues, a center in the world. Sanji even asks if there are fishes that could fly in the air, and Sora knows there are, and she begins to wonder too.

Ichiji was the first one to return, he chances upon Sanji and Sora talking about All Blue. He wasn't surprised since it is Sanji. Yet he says nothing about it.

Sora welcomes him and the others as they return to being strapped on their seats. They were fast approaching the top, and the seats were to be re-oriented when they reach it to climb down the other side of the Red Line. This was to happen again for the other wall, but only after they've crossed a large expanse of ocean called the Grand Line, and already Ichiji was bored.

* * *

Ichiji had been subjected to Sanji's talk about the All Blue when they were studying one rainy day when they had nothing better to do. Sanji had chanced upon the book at the library and he'd been infatuated with it since. He'd tell him all bout it when he could, and not just him, even Niji and Yonji and Reiju. So far, everyone knows that one place Sanji dreams to see with his own eyes. Why exactly, he doesn't say, just that the fishes are there and he'd want to cook them all atlas once in his life. Ichiji thought it was a good dream; if Sanji just wants a place where he can catch and cook fishes, but Sanji never mentioned something to the others that he's only said to Ichiji. Something related to Germa.

Sanji looks Ichiji straight in the eye, the air around them had changed to something more somber, more serious.

"If I find the All Blue, I want the Germa to stay there." Sanji had said. Ichiji understood. A sea of their own means a territory for themselves. What better Kingdom to rest on a Legendary Sea, than a legendary Kingdom of Science like Germa?

A sea without enemies, where only those on ships and snails can live. A sea of dreams, Ichiji thought, but that is something he would never say. When Sanji does find All Blue, if he finds it, then maybe Germa can stay, and if Mama and Dad don't want to, well he'll just have to take over the throne. After all, he'll be the next King of Germa, and he doesn't care if the world hates them. All he cares about is the people he loves and those who love him back.

Ichiji only nodded. Of course, he understands. "I would like to live there too." He says.

* * *

Ichiji looks to Sanji as he reads the same book about All Blue. He remembers Niji getting poisoned and all the problems his Dad has all over the territories of North Blue.

In reality, Germa was having trouble with supplies and re-stocking. There was so much hostility around the Blues, Germa had taken on raiding ships like pirates.

Ichiji disliked the thought of it- it comes with no certainty and no safety. Not only that, but people gunning for his father's death have been many and in-between. Becoming King entails a lot of problems he keeps from his siblings, the same problems Reiju knows of and doesn't tell.

Ichiji knew their parents had the right decision to enhance their bodies and keep them in the kingdom. If they were to be left in an island with Ichiji as the eldest, he wouldn't have known what to do should their secret slip, and they find out who's children they really are. Ichiji's fears were founded like his parents'. His parents' fears would be passed on to their kids, and more so to Ichiji since he is set to be the next ruler of Germa…

When he looks at his parents and his siblings, he comes to hate the circumstances. He hates it that they were politically high-up in the political ladder of the world, but not truly royalty. He'd come to understand that, even if their parents had insisted they are.

That they had become the ultimate rulers of North Blue for 66 days, once upon a time, and they can do it again. That they were recognized due to their strength but holds no royal blood and no land to call their own. - Ichili wouldn't want to start another war, ever. Yet he prays for a safe land.

He prays to the gods that should they find a new sea, and become its rulers. That all this talk of conquest would end, of kingdoms destroyed and people dethroned. He prays that All Blue is real and that Sanji's dreams would come true. He prays that his parents would accept his wish to never fight for and against kingdoms again, to instead build their own a new and live in peace and love of their science.

In a new sea of dreams.

Yet their parents' ambitions are what binds them, he observes.

Their love for each other is founded on the ideals of the kingdom. Of strength and war and science. Of proving the world and their achievements.

Their love is based on them too, based on the happiness of their children, and he realizes the only healthy part of their relationship is founded on family. He wants to think other wise.

He wants to think that it is healthy to live by the kingdom's traditions, of living in the thought that ideals that harms the kingdom's vision is bad. That conquest is the force that pumps blood in their veins and not their literal hearts. That the whole world is their enemy and they should trust no one lest they want to fail.

Judge and Sora, although great parents, believed something old and sad that Ichiji refuses to accept fully. An idea that pales in comparison to his dreams for the kingdom.

They plan for it, Sora and Judge- their ultimate goal. Their children are by no means weapons to achieve it, but Sora and Judge use their science for the purpose of conquest, the purpose of creating a place in the world that shunned them. Moving it around, forcing it into submission, and forming it into their ideal land like clay.

Ichiji never felt the need to force himself onto others. He sees it as him making his existence known and blending into the world's natural course. He didn't have to make space of himself, because the others would make space and invite him in. He likes to think that there are people like that in the world. His dream is founded on peace and the kingdom's flourishing. He realizes it is no easy thing, especially to a 9 year-old.

Still, a dream of Sanji's could be a dream of his too… If Sanji finds All Blue, he will do his best to take refuge in the sea, and build a kingdom where they can sail in peace. And should their parents detest this, well, Ichiji can think of a few ways to start his own kingdom on All Blue. And this time, this kingdom will be a place where anyone can live in peace. And everyone can visit, and everyone can stay.

Ichiji likes the idea of that. A place to call home that isn't always moving.

* * *

When they landed on the East, it was already dark, and all five Vinsmokes were strapped on their chairs, sleeping peacefully. It was great fun while the snails traveled, but now that they're there, there was a more pressing matter to face. Sora sighed as she unbuckled herself, exhausted from the travel and sore from sitting down.

Judge enters the room. He was at the controls and the brig for the whole day, so he wasn't able to see his family and how they were doing for the travel. Although, Judge did see Niji and Reiju hop by his tower a few times during the climb.

When he got there, Sora was already up and looking at their little angels. A serious expression on her face. He knew she was in deep thought.

"Are the soldiers ready?" Sora asks Judge as he unstraps Reiju and lifts her up to rest on his arms and chest. Reiju snuggles closer to her dad, before she settles back down to sleep on him, safe and comfortable.

"The army in the cloning room will be ready in a day. We will lay low and attack Cozia when they least expect it." Judge whispers as he also un-buckles Ichiji and sets him on his other arm. By then, Sora had already un-buckled Niji and was setting him beside his brother on Judge's arm…

"Mama, Sanji… baked a pie…" Niji mumbles in his sleep. The couple giggles at their son's antics. So mischievous even in his sleep.

"Mama," Sanji says as he rubs the back of his finger to his eye.

"Sanji? Are you awake?" the blonde boy yawns and nods.

"Can you walk on your own?" Sora asks in whispers, the other children still sleeping, as she unbuckles and lifts Yonji up to settle his weight on her sholder and arm, she notices her lack of breath, an effort she had to endure to still be able to hold her children like this. With the other hand, she takes Sanji's hand as Judge led them through the halls of Germa and into their respective rooms and beds. Tucking in their children one by one until it came for Sora to tuck in Sanji while Judge tucked in Yonji.

"Mama… I don't feel very well." This got Sora's attention.

"What do you mean Sanji? Are you feeling ill?" Sanji shook his head, no.

"It's not… I'm not sick." Santi tries to explain. "I don't feel very well, my head and my chest feels anxious?"

"Anxious?"

"And uneasy. And jumpy and noisy." Sanji tries to describe it in words. This did not explain much of anything.

"Maybe you're just tired darling." Sora presses a kiss to Sanji's forehead. "Good night Sanji." Sora says as she makes for the door. Unknown to her the storm Sanji felt, fated to happen as the sun would rise the next day.

* * *

_** Author's Notes:**_

This chapter is hella long- like, two chapter's worth actually, but I just seriously needed an Ichiji's dream moment. I know the canon Ichiji didn't care about politics, but I'm making him more concerned here, more analytical of their lifestyle. Something the emotionless Ichiji would never be able to do or understand in Canon. Something I found about some kids who care about their parents, is that they tend to analyze the way they live. Like, small stuff such as the way a family spends their money, or their diet and how they fix a problem.

There are some kids who get an "out of the box" idea about life, a total 180 degrees of their parent's ideals, and that's usually what grates their parent's into becoming more strict with them and calling it a form of teenage rebellion. I want Ichiji to be something like that, but the kind that goes through a phase, but the parents would later on realize he was right- and he'd grow into such a fine adult.

Ofcourse, the fic is gonna end soon, so I don't think I'll be writing anythig about Ichiji becoming a rebel. :D

Enjoy the FIC! :D ;D :D


	11. C11: Observation 311

**C11: OBSERVATION 3.11**

* * *

Cosia had been conquered and raided, and the kingdom was theirs until his father decides to destroy it. Sanji wishes he wouldn't, because Cosia had a ton of land he could plant herbs on, and they had so much meat and cheese and food he'd want to cook with before they leave. Today, he was having a field day going around the market and looking at the ingredients.

The chefs said early mornings were the best time to get the freshest, so Sanji went on his own. He didn't want to disturb anybody, so he decided to go on his own adventure since he can handle himself just fine. He had to get up really early too, as he snuck out at 3 am and got there by 4am. Just the right time when the carriages from the ocean came in to deliver their catch and the vegetables were set on their stalls.

Sanji could have waited at the docks to get the fishes, but he wanted to experience walking down the market of Cosia just once without supervision. So off he went with some money, a basket, one of the chef's jacket which was far too big on him and an old ratty cloak to cover him up. When he was done putting on his disguise, he went to the market without much commotion.

It was no secret to the citizens that Germa had taken over the land. The citizens were already talking about the whole ordeal, even before the rising of dawn. The people in the market were already loud, Sanji thought, but not with the kind of talk he wanted to hear.

"Did you hear? King Lucion would be executed come morning, and Germa would take the treasure and we'll be left without a ruler!" A man says as he accepts the fishes, receiving the heavy boxes from the other man.

"Left without a king? How will we live?" A lady asks as she overhears, and the two men include her in the conversation.

"Well, it's simple Ms. Marsh, we get ourselves a president." One man says. At another part of the market, Sanji overhears a similar conversation. This time between a woman and a young boy accompanying her.

"King Lucion doesn't have a child. He was too focused on being King to care about the kingdom's future, so he ordered he would pass the crown to his nephew, Prince Haron. However, Haron died when the Germa invaded. When he took on three kids with the numbers 1, 2 and 4 on their shirts thinking it would be an easy win. He lost. So now we are left without an heir."

"Well, are the Germa our new rulers?"

"Not likely. Germa's style would either be to lay waste to the land and abandon us. Or make us pay the fine for our freedom. However, if they were to be gone without harming the citizens, we could build our own government, even erect a new king." The lady explained.

The market place was buzzing with the issue. Sanji only wanted to do his shopping without encountering the same talk, but it seems it's unavoidable. Some people were cursing Germa, and what they've done to the king, but some people were just thankful that Germa only took it out on the king and nobles, not the poor citizens.

Sanji wasn't affected by their talk, but there was a sickening feeling he just couldn't get rid of in his guts. While he doesn't understand it, he wanted so much to punch something, but he doesn't. That is not his goal. He needed to be conspicuous, a face in the crowd they would easily forget. And so he did just that.

Sanji was almost done with the shopping when he needed just one last thing. A bag of tomatoes. When he finally reached the stall with the vegetables, he looked over at the batches being prepared on the counter.

When he was about to get the net of fresh tomatoes, the only bag with half ripe and unripe pieces, he was halted by another hand which aimed for the same net of them.

Sanji looked up to see the hand of a thin, sickly looking guy. Sanji was momentarily shocked by the skinniness of the man, he pulled back, losing his claim on the tomatoes. It may have been due to the poor lighting, but Sanji thought the man looked like the very picture of death. If not for the audible wheezing of the man's breathing, then Sanji would have thought the man was death himself. His arms were practically skin and bones, with patches of uneven coloring. His complexion was dark, and his dark hood obscured his eyes. The man's blonde beard was practically white as it obscures his pale thin lips. It was haunting, Sanji thought as a shiver ran up his spine. At that time, he never realized it was fear he felt. A fear he felt for the very first time. To him, it was a new feeling, one he was not comfortable with.

"How much?" The man asks the woman at the stall. Sanji noted his voice sounded like rusted gears of one of the engines in Germa. His voice was hoarse and grates at his throat. It scared him, to see a man like this still standing when a man like this should have been dead. For a moment, Sanji found himself respecting the man, and wondering what on earth had happened to him.

The lady gives a glance at the man, and instantly her lips frowned in concern. The lady was not scared, Sanji thought… she was worried?

He wondered, not really certain of the feeling of worry. His Mama once said she was worried when Niji was poisoned and didn't wake till noon. Mama and Reiju worried when Ichiji scraped his knees or when Niji broke an arm or when something happened to Reiju. The lady was worried, despite her not knowing the man. Was it normal to worry for a stranger? Sanji questioned.

"For you sir, free of charge." The lady said with a smile.

"No ma'am. I… I have money. I was just stranded at sea when my ship went down from the storm." The man had spoken as he brought out a gold coin.

"Oh no! I'm serious. By the looks of it, you need those tomatoes more than I do. And the money you can use to get treated. I don't mind." The woman insists as she pushes back the tomatoes and the gold coin. "Also, Here." She pushes two oranges into his hands. "Goodness knows you sailors need it."

"Thank you kindly Ma'am." The man bows and accepts the food. "Bless you." He whispered as he went on his way. It was then Sanji noticed the man's limp, and the walking stick he had on his other hand, the only support on his… he only had one leg. Sanji was suddenly pale. He wasn't one to get ill by seeing such trifle things, but the man was sickly pale and thin, he had only one leg and looked the very picture of death. Sanji really must know what had happened to the man, his curiosity must be satisfied.

As the man walked away, Sanji took one of the odder nets of tomatoes and paid for it. He immediately ran after the man, slowly making his way into town with a large sack slung across his back and the tomatoes and oranges hanging from his hold on his walking stick.

"Old man, do you need help?" Sanji had found himself asking first.

The man stops to look at him. Looks him up and down, trying to figure out if he was a mischievous dirty street urchin or a trustworthy kid who just wanted to help. The cloak was ratty, with small tears here and there, but underneath it, the man could see the chef's coat he wore. He clicked his tongue.

"What are you doing wearing the chef's coat outside of the kitchen? You'll dirty it here, and you're planning to cook in the kitchen with it?" He scolds. Sanji took a step back in shock. Already the man was telling him off. He didn't even know the guy.

"You'll contaminate the food with it boy." He says, and suddenly Sanji understands.

"It's the uniform. I don't have other clothes to go out in…" He says. He wasn't lying. The chef's coat really is the Germa kitchen staff uniform, and he doesn't have other clothes he can go to the market with. The rest of his clothes were either too Germa or too Royal.

"Still not an exemption. Food spoils faster when prepared in dirty places, same with the people."

"Are you calling me dirty, old man?"

"Well, smell yourself and tell me you aren't."

"I'm…" he takes a whiff of his clothes. "… smells like fish."

The man laughs. He laughs hard and coughs as nasty as his jovial laughing. Sanji taps the man's back. A gesture Reiju does when any one of them got sick or weren't feeling good. "Are you ok old man?"

The man coughs some more, but he doesn't tell Santi to stop touching him. So Sanji continues his patting. The nasty coughs soon decrease until he had held himself back together enough to form his own sentences.

"That's enough little eggplant. I'm fine now." He says. Sanji stops his patting but moves to make the man sit on a big rock on the side of the road.

"Are you heading into town? Do you need a doctor old man?" Sanji asks.

"Yeah. I gotta… gotta make the doc look at my leg for a bit." He says, looking sadder the more he mentioned it.

"What happened to you old man?" Sanji finds himself asking as he points at the orange the man has in his net. The man gives him the orange and Sanji wiped his hands and the orange on the coat before he peels it.

"It's not a story for the faint of heart." The man says as he watches the ten-year-old's hands peel the orange. Skilled enough, Zeff critiques.

"My heart isn't faint," Sanji responds as he presents the orange segments to the man. Zeff takes one and eats. Sanji finds himself taking one as well but limits his eating to make sure the old man eats more.

"Well, it started when the storm came out of nowhere. We were in the Grand Line when my crew was raiding the cruise ship called the Orbit."

"You were a pirate?" Sanji asks.

"Yes, I was. Is there something wrong with being a pirate?"

"No, nothing wrong. Just trying to picture it in my mind."

"Do you have something against piracy and raiding ships?" Zeff had found himself asking. Telling the complete story to a young boy is risky and dangerous. Yet he just has to tell someone, he finds himself battling in his mind the need to tell the tale of his isolation and entrapment on the rock. His battle against nature and starvation. The elements and himself, and his realization after the entire ordeal.

"No, my dad makes the soldiers raid ships too. Otherwise, we don't get supplies." Sanji finds himself answering. "Ichiji said we were like pirates, but we don't get posters because the government doesn't want to make the king angry."

"Well then, since we're both pirates and like pirates, then there's no issue on raiding ships." Zeff finds himself telling the story. About a storm no one saw, and two ships colliding. Everyone in his crew and the passengers of the other ship, tossed mercilessly in the waves and the long night he spent on driftwood with two bags at his side.

The next day he woke on a rock. Fifty feet above the sea, and sharp rocks underneath the mushroom-like structure. Two bags at his side, a large bag of gold, and a small bag of food. The food was only good enough for two weeks, he estimates. Yet the weeks turned to a month and a month turned to two. After his fourth week, he decided to cut his leg with a large sharp rock so that he could eat it.

Sanji's stomach twisted at the thought. He suddenly felt sick as his imagination worked. He found himself crying, tears in his eyes at the thought of such… a horrifying image. Sanji found himself spilling his guts out a nearby tree. Zeff had stopped the story and had started patting the boy's back, the same way he had just a moment ago.

"I said the story was not for the faint of heart."

"You didn't say it was…" He heaves, feeling bile at the back of his throat wrenching, but nothing came out. "- not for the weak of stomach." Sanji continues as he wrenches again.

After he had regurgitated his breakfast, Zeff had gathered his things and was just heading into town when they became witness to an army of Germa soldiers. There were screams and fire so early in the morning. The stalls in the market they had visited that morning were already set ablaze.

Sanji paled again. The sun had risen high, it was past the time he should have been back home. And he didn't leave a note, nor told anyone where he was going.

The soldiers looked ready to start another invasion. A destructive war where they would kill all and anybody who passes their way. Then he saw his dad riding a chariot pulled by the cats. He looked mad, eyes ablaze with anger so hot, it would burn. Sanji was about to take flight for Judge, to tell him he was there when he felt a hand at his shoulder.

"Boy, we must run." The man shouts. "Those soldiers are set to kill." The man with his meager strength decides to lift Sanji and sling him over his shoulder, while he grabs his other bags and continues to limp briskly to the village. Sanji protests in vein, but the man was too afraid to listen.

While on their way, Sanji had forgotten his basket of groceries. A needless thing, but still something he remembered he had when he came. He only hopes it would remain there when he returns from his trip to town.

* * *

"Sir, we found this on the road on the way to town." A soldier reports to Judge as they present him the basket with the Germa 66 logo, the groceries inside and the yellow purse with the number 3 on it.

"Sanji!"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

It's almost done! Two more Chapters and One more Epilogue. Which means the ending and the Tottland Arc reunion.


	12. C12: Observation 312

**C12: OBSERVATION 3.12**

* * *

"Sir, we found this on the road on the way to town." A soldier reports to Judge as they present him the basket with the Germa 66 logo, the groceries inside and the yellow purse with the number 3 on it.

"Sanji!" Judge takes the purse. He would know that customized coin purse anywhere. All his kids have it. Reiju's was a large pink side-bag with 0s for buttons. Ichiji's was a red flat wallet with a number 1. Niji's was similar to the red one but blue and had the 2 on the corner. Sanji's was this coin purse with the number 3 and Yonji's was a small green pouch he can hang on his neck with a 4 on it. It was the scientist's Christmas presents for the kids just last year when they were 9. Judge unconsciously finds himself squeezing the purse in his hands as he holds back his tears and worry.

The couple had realized that Sanji was missing when the servants had asked if they knew where the third was. At 7am, it was confirmed that one of the chef's coats and the hood were missing. As well as a basket and a few bottles and jars. It was obvious that Sanji went grocery shopping, and the couple had asked for two guards to find their youngest and help him back.

When the guards returned, they had informed the king and queen that the adventurous prince was not in the market area nor the docks. That's when the couple began to panic. Immediately, troops were dispatched with orders to bring the third prince back and to turn over every nook and cranny of the island until their little prince was found.

The orders translated to literally turn over every table and stand to check if the prince is there, which incidentally set fire to a few places which had flame or flammables. The whole market was ransacked in a span of 20 minutes before they discovered the basket and the purse.

"Town! Bring back the prince. Search every nook and cranny of the town and bring back my son!" Judge had ordered. All the troops marched, practically ran to town. Guns raised and ready, clones sharp and ready to attack whoever gets in their way. All to find the missing prince.

The man heaves as he slumps down a wall of an alley, He sets the boy and the bag of gold down onto the dirty street as he takes his time to breathe.

Sanji aids the man as he slides down the wall, his one remaining foot practically giving-up along with him, unable to hold his body up any longer.

"Boy, you-" he coughs, bad and sticky. Sanji wondered if he'd end up coughing his lungs out later on. "-gotta- run." He says between heaves and coughs.

"I'm not running." Sanji states blandly. What is there to run from? Germa is his country, this man is no danger to him. There was nothing to be afraid of.

"Run." The man pushes him, yet he refused to move from where he was pushed. Instead, he waits patiently for the man, seemingly having given up. That was not fun. But the story the man told, what he'd been through. Sanji could only imagine it. If Sanji didn't see the man himself, looking like a living corpse, lugging around a pile of gold and Sanji over his shoulder, he would have thought the tale was impossible.

"Old man. What's your name?" Sanji realized it just then, he didn't know the man's name.

"I'm Zeff." Zeff says as he heaves and settled his breathing. His coughing was calming down, but his heartbeat was still so loud, and a single take of breath made a whole difference to the rise of his chest. Sanji couldn't leave the man like this, not when he has so much more stories to tell him.

"I'm Sanji." He introduced but followed instead with a question. "Do you know of All Blue?"

Zeff stares at the kid. Of all the questions to ask, why about a myth? Yet his mind already works. Like all young cooks who plans to sail the world in search for it. It's a dream of all cooks to find the legendary sea. All Blue.

"It's my dream to find it." Zeff smiles, still determined. "I don't plan to die until I find it."

If Sanji's eyes weren't sparking before, now they obviously were. If Zeff were to describe it, he'd say he reminded him of his youthful self. Back when he had head about the legendary sea and planned to find it along with his crew, the Cook Pirates. How all the young lads under him were eager to find and fish and cook from their catch in the sea of All Blue. It was the Cook Pirate's dream! Better than One Piece and never yet found. All Blue.

Zeff sighs. 'Rest in Peace, you crazy lot,' his mind supplies. For he is alone now, he is old without a crew and has found a new calling in life. To build a haven for the hungry, in the middle of the sea. One place to welcome all the starving, no matter where they come from or who they are. Feed them, even if they had no money.

He lives by these ideals now, and when there is food, there is hope.

"HALT!" A soldier says as he enters the alley. The soldier spots the blonde prince behind the man.

The soldier points his gun at Zeff as he screams his demands "Surrender the boy." He says to the man.

Zeff's instincts were instead to wrap the boy in his arms and hide him from the soldiers. "It's going to be fine Sanji. When you get the chance, run." He whispers in the boy's ears as Zeff uses his back to shield the boy.

Pressed to closely to the man, Sanji realizes just how thin the man truly is. He could feel his bones beneath the clothes, and his arms could wrap around his chest and his fingers could touch regardless of his ribs. This man had been through so much to live, and he is willing to sacrifice himself for him.

Suddenly the scene looked so familiar. Like that of the time with Mr. Skee and how he was also to be shot. It's when he realized the scene was not familiar, but exactly like it, that he had to remind himself to move. To do something, lest this man becomes… He remembers the lifeless eyes of the chef. Blood pooling at his face, shot in the head. Pieces of brain on the floor and on Sanji.

Suddenly, Sanji realized the implications of death… And its when he wanted to cry that he scolds himself not to.

Zeff does not move, but Sanji does. He breaks free from Zeff, but instead of running away, he faces the guard and holds up his hands. "STOP!" He yells. The guard shoots before Sanji had said his line. The bullet sails through the air and lands instead on Sanji's right arm. The bullet bounces off his coated skin and falls to the ground like it were nothing but a fly in his presence.

The other guards come and shout their findings until one of them brings out a baby den-den mushi to report. "We have found the Prince! Repeat! We have found the Prince! Alert the King immediately!" While the other guards file in the alley, they made to arrest the starved man.

"Don't handle him like that! Can't you see he is starved and crippled." Sanji scolds the guards.

"Orders are to arrest the kidnappers for trial your highness." The guard with the den-den had answered.

"He didn't kidnap me," Sanji explains. "I went shopping and the commotion startled us, so we ran the opposite way." Yet the guards continued to handle the man like a prisoner. Both arms, paper thin and bones, were the only things keeping him up. One soldier went to grab his bag and his stick, with the other two haul him out of the alley.

"Get me a doctor, and let him treat this man." Sanji ordered. The soldier ran to get the doctor as the soldiers waited for the King's chariot to arrive.

The doctor arrived first before the King, and wasn't that a sight to see. Zeff thought he'd seen and experienced everything, but life had so much more instore for him it seems.

When the King arrived on his mighty chariot, he looked like such a mess, something unbecoming of a king. His mane was in tangles, his uniform sooty and grimy, and his eyes were red and glistening. Yet the moment he saw Sanji, he had gone down to get off the chariot and ran to pick up his son to give him a hug.

"Dad!" Sanji hugs back.

"Sanji!" The king sniffs but breaks the hug to look the boy in the eyes. "Don't you ever do that again. Never leave the kingdom without telling anyone. Without an escort and a den-den and two guards by your side." A worried parent, a very scared to his wits- parent who needs to learn to be a little more stricter and less overprotective, in Zeff's point of view. It was like watching a regular family instead of a Military Kingdom's Royal Family having issues. More hugging and crying than he'd expected. The sight tugs a smile on his lips.

"Dad! I didn't want to bother the servants, and I was planning to go sightseeing too so I didn't bother asking the cooks to come with me. I swear nothing happened to me. See." Sanji shows his hands and face for his father's inspection, but instead, the king ends up pressing kisses on the boy's head and cheeks.

"You still worried me and your mother! What do you think she'd done this morning when she realized you weren't home? She had locked down the kingdom and searched for you everywhere, she pulled up an investigation to figure out if someone had taken you, only to find out you snuck out all by yourself at 3 in the morning. Sanji! This is completely unacceptable, and I demand you apologize to everyone in the kingdom and especially your mother and sister. They were the most worried about you!" Judge says his speech as he scolds and kisses his son. Zeff was confused if he was being serious or not.

"I'm Sorry," Sanji spoke as he hugged his dad. "I didn't think you'd be the mad, and I was planning to go home in time, but I met a really interesting old man and I just had to ask his story."

Sanji's eyes wondered over to Zeff, and that's when the King finally realized there was a spectator to his parenting skills.

"Hi." Was the only thing that emerged from Zeff's mind.

The King looked at the man, eyes wondering up and down before he said, "How are you alive?" The king's first words to the half-dead man with a missing limb and complexion so sickly it was similar to death.

"The gods won't take me that easy." His response, followed by heinous coughing of degrees so extreme, even the king shook in disgust. The king frowns at this and gives his orders.

"Take him to the Germa's Clinic. Let our doctor treat him and offer a prosthetic for his foot. For now, he is considered a visitor of Germa, Prince Sanji's friend until further notice." The king had ordered, and the soldiers went to work dragging him to Germa along with his stuff. Sanji was walking right beside him, already asking more about his old pirate crew, the Cook Pirates, and how close were they to reaching the All Blue.

Zeff was rattled as he was carried, but he told the boy their adventures and that one ocean where they thought All Blue was but was wrong. Then he told Sanji all about Fishman Island, and it was there where he saw more fishes where it was possible to remember.

"My navigator, Jones, proposed the most amazing idea yet of where we might find it. He proposed that the All Blue is an ocean under an ocean."

"Whoa?! You really think so?" Sanji thought. It was possible. But you'd need a ton of land to hold up the ocean, so an underground coral structure? A cave that leads to All Blue? The thought of it is just mind boggling its amazing!

In no time at all, they reached the Kingdom's hospital, Zeff and Sanji were welcomed with the Queen herself.

"Mama!" Sanji had said as he ran for her. He managed to hug Sora before Sora pulled him off and gave him a slap on the cheek. It didn't do much to his exoskeleton, it was as harmless as a mosquito bite, but that had all of Sora's intent in it. Yet Sanji didn't flinch, wasn't even ready to cry. He just stared at her. "Ah… I'm Sorry I went away without telling anyone."

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Sora had asked, anger was visibly steaming out of her ears. Cheeks red and brows pinched. Sanji was more worried that she'd bust a vein than anything. That was until Zeff grabbed the back of Sanji's head and forced him down on his knees.

"On behalf of the little eggplant, we humbly apologize for worrying such a lovely lady." Zeff bows as low as he can. He decided to just fold his legs and bow till his forehead had touched the ground.

"Old man, what are you doing?" Sanji had protested.

"Listen here eggplant. There is a rule as old as the dinosaurs. Respect women. Especially your mother."

"I said I was sorry." Sanji tried to lift his head up, but Zeff continued to push down with his meager strength.

"You didn't say sorry enough. Until the woman tells you are forgiven, you have to say your apologies until you mean it from the bottom of your heart." Zeff explains. "Say it again until she says you're forgiven." Zeff orders.

Sanji could only stare at the man, seriousness concentration on his task. He clearly wouldn't let the boy go until he says his apologies, and the mother was shocked speechless. So Sanji decided to get it over with.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for going out without telling anyone. I'm sorry I snuck out at dawn without even leaving a note. I'm sorry for not coming back early. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm- so-orr-y. I-m so-rr-y. I-m shorry." Sanji had ended up crying as he said it again and again, only then realizing why his mother was angry at him. Why Zeff was making him apologize.

It was then Sanji realized his mother had lifted him from the floor and had hugged him tightly to her chest.

"I was- so worried." Sora had cried in his hair as she pats and smothers him. "I was so sc-scared. Som- someone could- could have… kidnapped you."

Sanji laughs. "I'm too- too strong to be- kidnapped." Still, she presses closer to him.

It was then that Sora realized it, Sanji was crying. He apologized, sincerely. Then Sora pulled back to see if it really is her son. Pulled aside the hair obscuring his face, up to see the identical swirls of his eyebrows. One nobody should know to duplicate. It really was him, and he was… feeling.

She looked at the man beside them. The man with the image of death. Sora shook, it sent a shiver down her spine. This man had done something to her son. Something even she doesn't know if it's good. Yet seeing Sanji like this, crying, it was extraordinary. What she thought would be impossible for her boy to feel... sincerity, empathy, understanding, worry, pain and love.

They were things Sora only taught Sanji to act upon or emulate the gestures off. Stroking the back when a person coughs, helping others pick things up, telling people he understands their predicament when he really doesn't. Saying ouch when he gets extremely hurt, despite not being hurt at all. Small little gestures that made it feel more normal. Things that would make him more human than... weapon.

Sora shakes her head. No. Her son is not a weapon. Despite years and years of trying to make him sincere and normal, she fails to make him express his sadness, his pain and his hurt. She had never seen Sanji so... emotional, it was unnerving despite this being her dream.

"Guards. Escort this man to be treated immediately. He will not die, not under the Germa's watch." The queen orders. When the guards moved to maneuver the man up, Sora smiled at him, the man at the brink of death.

"Thank you for taking care of my son." She smiles. Tear tracks still visible on her cheek.

"No problem at all.

* * *

** Author's Note:**

Almost Done! :D

When I mentioned in the past this wasn't beta-ed, I would like to ask for my reader's comments and reviews regarding my Sentences construction, Grammar, Spelling, Plot even my POV. I know I'm not perfect, but I need opinions on what I have to work with. During emotional scenes, do I dig good and deep enough for the readers to understand, or did I do sub-par at most? Is this story easily forgettable? Do I need more humor? Action? Drama? Magical talking cats?

Anyway Enjoy! And comments are welcomed before I release the last two chaps. :D


	13. C13:The Good Father

**C13: THE GOOD FATHER**

* * *

The man, the ex-pirate Red Leg Zeff, had been under Germa's care for the last 4 months. He had managed to recover almost magically under them, but Zeff says he's just too used to moving around to stay still and half of his miraculous recovery was due to Germa's medicine. He was given a prosthetics to work with. However, he admonished the ones shaped like a foot for one that was a peg leg.

The man was strange. Sora and her team had thought. Stubborn too. Can't get him into bed until he'd seen Sanji at least once. Whether to tell him a story or teach him something in the kitchenette Judge made for him. The other kids seem to take a liking to him too. They can't fight him since the doctors won't allow it, but they can talk to him, and like every great pirate captain, he was a really good storyteller. Sometimes, Reiju and Ichiji would be seen around him, just talking or practicing the violin.

The man knows shit about music, but he can appreciate it like a true gentleman. Sora accepts that.

All in all, he was the grandparent the kids never had, and sort of like a master to Sanji in manners, fighting and cooking. Especially in cooking. He'd given Sanji strict principles to follow.

1) Chivalry. Respect women, never fight them and know that they are always right.

2) The chef's treasures are his hands. They must never be used for anything but cooking.

3) Everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from and what they do; deserves to eat. A starving man is a dead man, and food is hope for men like them.

Sanji remembers Zeff when he first met him. His figure like a walking corpse, and the tale of eating his leg to survive. Sanji understands. There is no nobler occupation than to be a sea cook. He wants to be like Zeff.

At around the fifth month, the councilors of Germa had decided they stayed in East Blue long enough. They must return to the North and reclaim their status as the most feared. With the threat of Doflamingo's power rising in the North Blue, they could not waste any more time idling in the weakest sea.

As such, the couple had to tell Sanji that they must leave Zeff behind, as the man wishes to make his own floating restaurant in the safest sea. The couple respects this, as the man is still not strong enough to return to the Grand Line, nor travel that far.

Niji was shocked to see Sanji packing his bags and his wares as he double checks his list. As any sane sibling would do, he ran to tell his parents.

"Mama, Dad! Come quick, Sanji is packing his stuff!" The boy heaved, Niji had rushed to the laboratory where Judge and Sora had gone to start a project on combustion-less jet boots.

"What?" Sora had been confused, so she left her work as she ran to the kitchen Judge had made for Sanji.

Both Judge and Sora reached the kitchen to find the items stored in a box. Not all of them, just the pans and utensils, while the tableware was still inside the glass cabinets.

Sanji was nowhere to be seen.

Next, they ran to Sanji's room, the door with the yellow 3. Once they entered, everything was made, and there was a luggage set and packed on the chest at the foot of the bed. Sora was close to bursting into tears. Sanji was leaving? Running away? When does he plan to tell them? Had learning under Zeff taught him nothing?

Speaking of the man, the last place they must be is… the clinic. Yet he was not at the clinic, but the main kitchen. Where Zeff was berating Sanji for being a terrible cook.

"Take me with you!" Sanji demands again. The first line Sora and Judge heard from the conversation.

"I have no use for brats who can only cook shit." Zeff huffs as he crosses his arms.

There were two servings on the counter; one was obviously made by a professional and the other made by an inexperienced cook. The stark contrast between the two sets- the clarity of the broth on the soup, the way the rice was served, and the glimmering sauce of the curry was perfect, compared to the murky broth, misshaped wet rice clumps and curry with uneven cubes of vegetables and the messy plating of the finished product. Their levels were obviously different.

"You say you want to be a cook, yet you don't even have the skills to be one. Can't even cut the vegetables evenly." Zeff critiques. Sanji could only clench his fists. He can see that, but he doesn't have to say it so harshly.

"Can't even do the basics, nor have the patience for a proper straining." He says as he uses the spoon to stir up sediments in the broth. Sanji could only grit his teeth.

"Do I have to tell you what you did wrong with the rice?"

"No." That was all Sanji could say. Sanji wasn't really one to cry. For the past 10 years, Sanji could say he had never cried a day in his life, until Zeff came along. The old man had forced him to do things he would normally be uncomfortable with. Apologizing, bowing low till his head reached the ground, working in another kitchen, using different tools, undertaking pressure tests, timing his work and cooking with limited given ingredients.

Then he gets critiqued in the worst way possible. Just hurtful enough that it makes him want to cry.

"Take pride in your work when you've made sure your work is something to be proud of." Zeff had added, "Does this look like something to be proud of?" The thin man huffed. Arms still crossed, yet standing mightier than a half-dead man should.

Sanji doesn't answer. How could he? He was too busy biting the lower part of his lip to stop the sobs from escaping.

"And you were demanding that I take you with me. You haven't even told your parents your plan, and you aren't even sure you want to be a cook. This is life brat. There are gonna be worse people who will tell you how terrible your work is, how talentless you are. Are you going to stop cooking because they say some hurtful words?"

"No! I won't stop! I like cooking." Sanji's reaction was mellow, almost resigned, but there was a spark there, Zeff knows it takes just a little more pushing to set it up in flames. Get some conviction in his words.

"It takes more than liking cooking to thrive in it. Cooking requires you to put all your love and effort into it. How can you demand me to take you when you haven't told your parents what YOU want to do with your life? What is more important for you Sanji? Your family or cooking?"

Sanji back-pedals. Choose between family or cooking. Family. Of course family. They… Sanji wouldn't be cooking if his mama didn't support him; if his dad didn't build him a kitchen. Then there's cooking… Sanji would go insane without it. All the things he can think of would be wasted on the urges he gets from mood swings and things he wants to do with his hands. Things he wants to destroy with his hands. No… Sanji shakes his head. He needs to make a choice. Yet how can he?

From the crack on the door, Sora and Judge listen to the conversation. Sora's tears were flowing in worry a while ago, was now just observing the entire situation. While he'd like to kick Zeff's ass for practically harassing her child, making him choose between them and cooking, she wants to watch just where this goes.

The fact that Sanji hasn't told them yet means he was asking Zeff first, but should Zeff say yes then Sanji would leave them to pursue culinary arts under him. Yet the fact that he hasn't told them means he isn't sure he'll go. Sora summarizes, "He's doubting himself, his abilities and priorities." She finds herself saying her analysis out loud, just loud enough for her husband to hear. "He's choosing between us and his dream."

With those words from his wife's lips, Judge finds himself recalling a distant memory. A memory from his youth. When his father practically abandoned him on Karakuri island.

"Dad! No, don't leave me!" Judge had pleaded. The six-year old's arms trembled, having all the strength and none at the same time as he desperately clings on his father's legs.

"I can't- you…waaahhhh… mama- she's….waaaahhhh." Judge had sobbed so much he could no longer remember what he'd said, but he could never forget the pain and anguish on his father's face, forever embedded in his mind. Despite the tears obscuring his and his father's eyes which once held the bluest ocean now only had the greyest storms within them.

"Judge… When you grow up, you will understand." His father had hugged him, the last hug he'd felt from him. A warmth he used to dream of before he grew up and realized he was never coming back.

"The government, those… THOSE MONSTERS! They killed your mother for her research! I can no longer stay in any land that pays homage to THOSE FREAKS WHO THINKS THEY CAN TAKE ANYTHING THEY WANT!" His father had clutched him tight, his eyes could, but they were far from destroyed, far from giving up! Yet he was leaving him… Had he given up on what he loved?

"Don't leave me too!" Judge had shouted without thinking. "I hate you!" His fingers were still curled so tightly to his father's pants, they might have been frozen stiff by the numbness he felt. He remembers trying to hit his father's legs as hard as he can, without letting go of his pants, because he was afraid that if he let go, he would never see him again.

"I can't… I'm sorry." His father's words. "Judge, I know that this isn't the place you want to be. I'm sorry. But as a father, I know this is the place you have to be. Do you trust me?"

"No! No! Don't leave." It was all Judge could say. Those were his last words to him. He never wrote and never called. He never saw him again.

At that time, Judge has yet to understand the ways of the world. The royals and the nobles, the Celestial Dragons and the Gorosei, Marines, Pirates, Mafia. Life and Death. All that was once but a dream, a world far away.

When his father left, he'd said it was for his safety, so that they wouldn't trace him back to him. His father had started Germa, as revenge for his wife, the snail breeder, and researcher for its uses. A woman the Celestials had ordered the Marines to slaughter and steal her life's work. They stole her den-den mushi, the first of its kind, and never acknowledged its true creator, erasing her from history. With the last of her snails, her hidden project, he created Germa on them. Erecting towers and land, his work with hers, like a blend of theirs. What could have been their home should she still have lived to see it.

He built Germa to fight marines and Celestial Dragons, stay in a land that has neither their history nor jurisdiction. A land built by man, without a place to settle down.

Later on, it became known as an evil organization. Judge had known nothing about this. He was but an orphan in the snowy island of Karakuri. Studying and doing research with his acquaintance, Vegapunk. Because they aren't friends, they are too mad at each other for always contradicting but ending up with a better idea.

And while Judge understands the value of learning and independence in pursuing one's passion… he realizes there was something his father did that gave him everything he has now. His loving wife, his children, his kingdom and science.

When his father had left him, he was given a path. A path he took and used his all to pursue. The path of science which he had given. A path he would have stolen from Judge should he have brought him along to become an outlaw.

In a way, he began to see a new light to his father's reasoning.

All this time, he thought that his father wasn't a good one at all. He'd left him on Karakuri. Left him alone and all by himself. Made him survive on his own, work for his own, invent for his own and everything else a child should have parents for. All those times, he returned home to a cold house, with not a trace of love nor warmth on the snowy freezing land. He'd rather not come home at all, and his work became his life.

Never in his mind did he realize his father was putting him in a better position. His father had built him Germa, so when he understood the world and what it did to his mother, he would have a place he can go to.

His father had left him on an island that advances in his passion, science and engineering.

His father had kept him a secret, left him in an island and never contacted so that the marines would never figure out where he was. And suddenly he realized his father's sacrifices.

All of it, was for Judge and his family. Even if it meant being apart. Even if it meant never seeing his son again. Never feeling the love of family and the warmth of their hugs and kisses. Having no one to worry about and worry about you in return. All of it was so that Judge can have a future. Suddenly he realized, his father was a good father.

And it was his turn to be a good father to his son.

Judge enters the kitchen, doors bursting open to reveal the king and the queen at the other side.

"Dad!" Sanji exclaims as he wipes his tears.

"Sanji, I heard from Niji that you were packing your things."

"I… I wasn't. I was just… cleaning. Yeah." Sanji makes an excuse, a lie of course.

Judge turns to Zeff instead. The man still looked as stern and imposing, even half skin and bones and slightly colored than the last time he'd seen him. "Zeff." He'd greeted. "We will be docking in Logue Town in 5 hours. We will be docked there for 22 hours before we head over to the Red Line to cross it." Judge had announced the plan.

"Is this all you plan to tell me your highness?" Zeff had even cocked a brow, high and sharp. Damn the old man for knowing everything.

"No. I have a request for you." Judge and his large form gets down to his knees and bows his head.

Although Zeff was expecting a request, he wasn't expecting the King of Germa to bow before him.

"Red Leg Zeff." He starts. "You are a pirate. A wanted criminal. An outlaw and a sea cook." Zeff wasn't expecting that either. Still, he kept his composure and stared at the man before him. He loosened his arms to place at his sides. "Yet we, the Vinsmoke family, Rulers of Germa 66, the Kingdom of Science's Rulers trust you. In a way, like you are part of the family." Judge implied this with so much sincerity, Zeff almost wanted to make the man rise. But Zeff is a man, he knows that as a father, he has to make the first move for his son to follow.

"And I put my complete faith in you and your family as well. I owe you a debt that I may never get to repay."

"Then repay this debt, by accepting my son to be your apprentice." Judge had said. Sanji and Sora stared with awe and shock.

"I can not." Zeff declines instantly. "The sea is no place for a child."

"Sanji is not a normal child." Judge counters. "If you haven't noticed yet…."

"Your children's skins are hard. Their hair comes in colors uncommon from all across the blues. They are stronger than most, Sanji was able to lift me up on his own, and a normal child would have had trouble still. I don't plan to ask what you've done to your children, but I understand you've done it to keep them close to you."

"Then you know that Sanji is…"

"As I said before, I don't care what you've done to him. He is himself. There's nothing else to it. He is still a child in my eyes. Unskilled and has a loving family to take care of him. He comes from a reputable name, known even here in the East Blue. The Germa 66 are legends here."

"Then you know what we are capable of." Judge had almost threatened, but Zeff was a stern man, not easily offended by the foolishness of a child in his eyes. Especially not a dotting parent.

"At the state my body is in, I feel that I would not be able to defend him should an enemy come for us. I am simply too…" but before Zeff could finish.

"Then what if he bears no name?"

"Judge, you can't disown Sanji!" Sora screams. She lunges for her child, there is no way she would let him leave, not without protection. She holds him close and holds him near. Sanji doesn't move. Arms still clutched to the sides, gripping his apron as tight as he can hold the thin material, holding in all his tears. Deciding what he really wants.

"Mama, Dad," Sanji speaks. "I want to be a chef." He says in a voice so low, it was barely audible.

"Speak up little eggplant. We could barely hear your voice. Someone with a weak heart would never prove anything to the world."

"I WANT TO BECOME A CHEF! THE BEST IN THE WORLD! AND FIND THE ALL BLUE!" Sanji states his dream. Sora could only stare.

Sanji's eyes were so determined, his dreams which she'd been cradling for so long has finally sprouted in him. While Sanji had never expressed his dreams out loud, Sora knew he would be unlike his siblings.

He loves to cook. And Zeff accepts him, even calls his mood swings normal for all the arguments they have in the kitchen. His tenacity and anger and violence, Zeff calls passion. "A strength of a cook, is his firmness and gentleness when handling ingredients. Not all ingredients require the same treatment. Some need to be forced open with brute strength, while others need just a few good taps." -She recalls one of Zeff's lessons. Sora knew, Sanji would fit right in… better in the kitchen than in the kingdom where he hasn't a friend his age and where the chefs stay out of his way.

Sora finds herself letting go of her son. "I… understand." Sora takes a few steps back. Judge stands from his knees and immediately stations himself beside his wife. Sora was smiling her cold chilling smile, but this was sincere. Tears were streaming down her eyes, looking to her son with fondness and good wishes.

"We will stay on the sea for another 15 hours. We will announce the hospitalization and death of Prince Sanji Vinsmoke and Chef Zeff due to a horrible kitchen fire. They perished with burns and asphyxiation." Sora plots.

* * *

Later that night, the news got out, and preparations for the burial was set. The siblings cried for their loss, even Niji who had convinced himself that Sanji had died. Sora hides her face in her hands, concealing the smile she'd try to force on herself. She knew that Sanji is well, and he has a dream. Yet why is it, that she cannot stop crying?

Why is it, that she still feels like she'd lost a part of her? Stripped and pulled away like a bandage, leaving her wounds open and exposed? And still, why does she feel so fulfilled?

Judge looks to his subjects, lamenting his decision as he stares blankly into the crowd. Was this the same pain his father felt when he left him? He looks to the sky, it was such a beautiful night in East Blue. Beautiful and Peaceful. It was a good night to wonder and worry… This would not be the last night he would lament his decisions.

* * *

Sanji hides his head underneath the ratty old hood and the oversized chef's coat he tends to wear outside. While Zeff had told him time and time again that the practice had to go, he understood that Sanji doesn't plan to cook wearing the specific chef's coat.

It was at the cover of night when Sanji saw the bright orange lights, a sign of mourning for him on the snails of The Germa Kingdom. The whole kingdom was lit in yellow-orange, with yellow flowers and garlands on his tower and a large picture of him he can barely make out from the cliff they were on.

From the distance, Sanji could hear Reiju play her violin, the music bounced off Germa's walls, as it did every afternoon when the sun turns orange, pink and purple, then disappears for the night. Yet this time, it was a dark moonless night, and from the grassy island he stood on, he could only cry for his loss… So this was loss? This was what missing people would feel like? He clutches his heart, and notes it again, storing it in memory and heart. This is the feeling of loss.

He'll be feeling more things, feelings; like those he'd been sheltered from. He laments, and while he realized he loved his parents, he appreciates they decided to let him go to take on the path for his dream, and experience new things, new feelings he never had.

Beside him, Zeff stood, eyes glassy with the reflection of orange as he watches the kingdom sail away and into the night. Further and further away from them. Until it was just a thumb's size on the ocean of black.

"Let's go little eggplant," Zeff says as he hauls his bag of treasure and a few clothes. Sanji wipes his tears and snot with the back of his hand. He takes up his things and follows his old man into the village.

"Sanji," Zeff breathes a sigh, a content one he'd planned to keep to himself but turned too loud. "You have good parents."

Sanji sniffs, looks over one last time to the floating orange lit kingdom. "Yeah. They are the best." He smiles.

Someday, Sanji says to himself. He will see them again.

And when that day comes, he will be at sea searching for All Blue. He will find it.

He'll find it and bring his whole family there. Then they can achieve their dreams and live in peace… And Sanji will really have everything he wanted.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

_**And that's the end. Last thing to attach here is the Epilogue which will be released in 3-6 days, and I'm all done. No more! Yay! :D**_

_**IceinmyLean: **Thank you for the comment! Actually, the Mr. Skee incident was only supposed to show that Sanji didn't care about the people around him, that in addition to not minding pain, he also had little to no compassion or mercy. The Mr. Skee incident was just a nice re-call. A very coincidental part of the chapter._

**_Mossflower1243: _**_Thank you for the comment! Well, because I already planned this beforehand, I have not much time to write about Niji and Yonji's dream. Howerver, I have indicated what they will take later on. Something no one expected I hope! :D_

_**Thank you readers, for reading, reviewers for reviewing and the other people for existing! :D **_

_**FOLLOW AUTHOR ME FOR MY NEXT WORK! :D**_


	14. C EPILOGUE

**EPILOGUE**

* * *

**TOTTO LAND, WHOLE CAKE CHATEAU**

Reiju's eyes looks straight ahead into the mirror, looking at nothing but the silk white of her dress. Her wedding dress. Reiju thought this day would have been happier, thought she would have a say on who to marry. Then again, Charlotte Tablet is a fine man, just that… She doesn't love him.

And as much as her dad had tried to persuade her, tell her that they don't need Big Mom's alliance… That they can survive on mercenary work and fighting wars not theirs, Reiju had had enough.

So given the invitation Judge had planned to turn down, Reiju had accepted. Her brothers being opposed to this as well. Ichiji was silent about it, but Niji and Yonji's protests were enough to deal with for all three of them. Later on, once they've met the man Big Mom had wanted her to marry, a man twelve years older than her who is currently 24 years old. A man who is wary of her presence, whom she politely accepts but could not find herself to relate to anything, Ichiji asked if she wanted it still.

Reiju said she can handle him…. She didn't answer Ichiji's question.

"Oh Reiju," Sora says from beside her, eyes glassy as she looks at her only daughter. "You're so beautiful…." Sora choked the sob on her next words. Reiju knew what she wanted to say next, she ignores it.

"Thank you Mama." Reiju smiles, eyes dry. All her tears she'd shed last night, when she realized she would not be marrying a man she'd dreamt of like when she was a child. She could imagine still, try to make the best of her marriage. Although Tablet is not as tall and rougishly handsome as her dad, nor sweet and fierce and smart and romantic like she'd hoped, she can learn to live with it. This was for Germa, for her Kingdom.

There was a heavy knock on the door, two knocks in fact. "Reiju, is Sora in there?" It was Judge.

"Yes dear. I'm here." Sora responds.

"May I enter?"

"Yes, just…. Give us a second." Sora wipes her tears. Glad she'd worn water proof mascara. When Judge entered the door and laid his eyes on Reiju, a wobbly smile made itself on his lips.

"My little girl is all grown-up." He praises, "You're as gorgeous as your mother when I married her. Who ever marries you is one lucky guy." He offers his hand to help get her down the dressing stage, when she gingerly placed her hand on his, he slips a pink bangle onto her wrist, not at all odd for the white and pink ensemble. Judge places another supporting hand on her shoulder, meaning to comfort her from the hidden stress she was under. If Judge knows her daughter, she is like Ichiji who tells no one what she truly feels.

"What ever happens today, Reiju. Just know that I am proud of you." Reiju did not want to cry, didn't want her parents to see her cry. So she opted to hug her father instead, and burry her head on his chest, where she knew she could take refuge in. It's become her special place since Sanji passed away, and while sometimes she dreams he is still alive; what could have been should he still be with them, she knows at the end of the day it is all but a dream.

One day two years ago, she remembers seeing a wanted poster of a man bearing the same name as Sanji, with the same eyebrows but an ugly sketch to it. There was a look-alike of him in East Blue that brought hope to the siblings because Sanji couldn't be that ugly. They were quintuplets, it was impossible for him to grow up so…. unaesthetic. Still, there was hope… Hope that was crushed when they found out it was merely a man named Duval.

Sanji is dead, burnt and buried in the museleum behind the castle. That is the cold hard truth, a truth Reiju hasn't fully believed yet it seems.

When all had settled and it was time for the procession, Reiju had calmed and was ready to face the future. 'No turning back', she'd said in her mind. No turning back.

* * *

The wedding was a disaster.

Straw Hat Luffy! Hundreds of Straw Hat Luffies?!

A gun was hidden in the groom's sheep's wool.

The sound of shattering glass, and screaming. Loud, high pitched- disarming screaming.

A pastor stealing the bride and an explosion from where they stood, fired by the guns of everyone guarding around them… Oh, Sanji was the pastor…. Wait.

"Sanji!" It was only then that Reiju realizes, she was being saved by her brother. As Sanji sky walks out of the wedding cake and unto the table where her family was trapped in hard candy.

Reiju jumps out of his hold, positions her bangle on the activation pose, and transforms mid-jump. She lets the pink and white light engulf her, letting her dress peel away and get tossed into the wind, uncaring where it lands. She feels the steady materialization of her raid suit, but this time, heavier and forming fibers where they were once bare off. A new design?

She lands, poised and in her pose. A new set of pink wings on her back and a pastel pink raid suit with purple and gold accents, covering up her whole front and showing conservative, almost teasing, parts of her collar bones till her chest and a v-cut on each of her shoulders. Reiju looks at her clothes first, before she shoots her father a questioning look.

"It was Niji's idea." Judge responds. "You're welcome." Niji follows from across the table as he stands from his once candy prison. Niji had been getting more and more creative with the raid suit designs, she shouldn't be surprised really.

Reiju observes that Sanji was on Fire. Well, his feet were on fire. And while everyone ignores this to put on their raid suits, given to them by members of the Strawhat Pirates she met when she had saved their captain from fish poisoning.

Reiju had a sinking suspicion that everyone was in on the plan but her. She lets it pass for now. There was time for this later. Not now. Later, she'd have to remember to give the boys a stern talking to, and give Sanji a hug before she throttles him about not contacting them that he was alive and well.

The whole Vinsmoke Family possessed a Raid Suit, even Sanji was given a transformation tube by Niji. And While Reiju knows, the Raid suit stood for serious matters, immoral acts she isn't proud of, it sure was satisfying to be wearing and posing with the whole family, even if it was just for a second. before Judge sent them off to deflect the attacks from the Charlottes.

* * *

When all the fiasco was over, and both Germa 66 and Strawhat Alliances were out of the territory, only then did Sanji explain what had happened.

Reiju had thought Sanji was Duval, as it turns out Sanji was, in fact, Sanji and not Duval!

So when she saved a pirate crew waving a Strawhat Flag, she had thought that they meant they were going to get Duval back from the Big Mom Pirates, since he was captured. Nothing related to Reiju's wedding, she'd thought. Although, she did mention that she was to be married, and they did greet her warmly and congratulated her. She still thought nothing strange of this. How could she? She was convinced her brother was dead.

Meanwhile on Sanji's side of things. When the second team of the Straw Hat Pirates reached Zou, Sanji had come across the news that Princess Vinsmoke Reiju of Germa 66 was to be wed to Prince Charlotte Tablet of the Big Mom Pirates. Sanji realized he can't let the opportunity to attend Reiju's wedding pass. So he'd told Nami and the rest that he'd be back, he just had to see his sister's wedding and give the groom a stern talking to, and proceeded to Sky Walk over to Tottoland.

When Straw Hat Luffy arrived in Zou, the rest of the crew told him that Sanji was going to a wedding, and the captain proceeded to whine like a baby and demand they followed after Sanji since it was a party he was going to, right?

Upon stealthily arriving on the castle, Sanji had over heard the plans for betraying Germa from Charlotte Tablet himself during the "bachelor's party". He then proceeded to get in contact with his parents and his brothers and made a plan to save Reiju and stop the wedding.

All the while, Straw Hat Luffy had finally reached Totto land, met a girl named Purrin who was also against the marriage of Tablet and Reiju, because she seems to know that Tablet likes another person and had been courting this person for over a year at Flour Island. So Purrin gave them the secret route to sneak into Whole Cake Chateu and the rest was chaos.

The Strawhats had formed alliances out of the Germa's spectrum and had proceeded to plan to assassinate Big Mom. Strawhats met up with Sanji, realized they had their own plans, planned to sync said plans and…

And here they are now. Still alive, having tea in a heavily damaged Germa garden while the remainders of the Germa soldiers tried to repair Thousand Sunny and the rest of the kingdom to the best of their abilities.

Sanji and Judge making them some food in the grill and prep area while the Straw Hats told stories about their adventures and everything Sanji had been up to for the last couple of years. Straw hat Luffy was exhausted, so he was sleeping on a coot at the side, and it was up to Nami, Brook and Chopper to tell them all their adventures.

"Then Sanji Sky Walked! And the Puffer Fishmen that surrounded him pierced each other!" Chopper told the story enthusiastically. "And the whole crew beat up 100,000,000 fishmen, just like that!"

Sora had been so amazed. Sanji managed to do all that without a Raid Suit? He'd improved, far more than she'd expected.

"Geeze Dad, tell me you at least tried improving your cooking skills to feed mama. I'd hate it if I found out you've been feeding her burnt meat for the last 10 years I've been gone." Sanji had deadpanned as he poked the charred black burgers. Judge could only laugh. "Worry not son. I would never feed your mother anything burnt."

Sanji looked to Sora who only smiled at them. Sanji sighed. "You know, she'll eat anything you give her, right?"

"Sanji, I am shocked you would think I'd be too sweet on your father after 26 years of marriage," Sora says in mock offense, yet her giggling gives her away. She earns a whine from her husband, and mumbling something about being a beast "To be fair, I realized being too sweet on him would lead to my early death, so I've been giving my honest opinion about his cooking." Sora had answered. "He knows he'd been over seasoning everything."

"Over seasoning is worse than under!" Sanji had exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at his father. "Toxicity to the body is higher when its over seasoned. You know the rule about doses and poisons, right?"

The Vinsmokes answered in sync. "Sola dosis facit venenum." except for Ichiji who was content to just smile at the predictability.

Chopper's eyes shone, practically turned into stars from awe. A family of scientists, Sanji was so lucky!

While Nami was educating Niji on fashion, and critiquing Reiju's raid suit he'd designed- (fashion design and nanotechnology).

Chopper was talking with Reiju about poison and antidotes- (music and chemistry- pharmacy).

Yonji was showing weapon designs to Brook about a chemical dispenser for gas elements in the shape of a violin for Reiju's raid suit.- (aviation and weapons engineering).

Meanwhile. Ichiji was content to just watch his family as they talked about science. While Ichiji did study a science himself- (political science and psychology), this doesn't mean he is like the rest of his siblings. And he is content with that. Psychology has its other uses, such as planning the next steps of Germa.

"If you'd want, why not stay over at East Blue for a bit? Lay low and visit old man Zeff." Sanji had proposed. "I haven't heard from the old man since I've left two years ago. While he'll never be lonely with the bunch of shitty cooks he has at the Baratie, I'm sure you'll be a breath of fresh air." Sanji remembered something too. "Nami-swan's island could keep you hidden from the marines too. If Nami puts in a good word for you, I'm sure you could use the island to lay low until the repairs are finished."

"That might work. I'll have to write a letter to Genzo first, make sure he won't call the marines on you." Nami adds when they were setting-up the table for late lunch.

"Nami-swan! So kind and smart! Bless us with your divine presence, Nami-swaaaann!" Sanji had praised as his limbs turned to noodles and grew hearts for eyes. Sora could only laugh. Oh, how expressive her boy had become, compared to when he was but a child without a hint of his emotions.

The morning tea time, which they'd spent talking had suddenly become noon. And while Luffy had eaten while he was asleep, he had yet to eat the large stack of meat Sanji had kept aside for him.

"No, we wouldn't want to impose. You've helped us a bunch already." Sora had been politely refusing the offers for help. Germa can and should take care of itself. The more people they involve, the more dangerous things become. Especially now that they've practically lost their Royal Status in the eyes of the World Government after assisting pirates. They even turned down the offer for attending the Reverie. Lord knows how many enemies they've made.

While their Kingdom was wide open and prone to any attack. They've lost 18 snails and 13 cloning labs with 1000 pods each. The snails also holds valuable scientific researches, half of which were classified and had no re-copies. Casualties are 30035 soldiers, 43 blue collar citizens, 8 scientists, 15 captains and 2 doctors. They were running low on supplies, and they would have to take on multiple jobs for the next 8-10 years just to re-gain the lost cloning equipment. They might even need to import weapons from Buggy the Clown. The very arms dealer they've been laughing at for the poor quality of their goods and primitive science of the use of gunpowder.

The family knew just how much they've lost, but the plans on how to remake them were not yet made, nor certain. Judge was fully aware of this as lunch passed. Still, he is thankful that his family is still complete, and that he has allies willing to help them out.

This time it was Judge's turn to speak for the family. "Thank you Straw Hats. You've been wonderful, and we humbly thank you for the offers and everything you've done. Thank you for taking care of my son."

The Strawhats blushed, flattered, refused and acted as they usually do when they get praised.

It was that moment that Luffy decided to wake-up after smelling the large plates of meat Sanji had placed on the table for him. "MEAT!" Luffy had risen like a zombie and started eating the meat in the way that only a rubber man could.

The Vinsmoke siblings watched in fascination, while normal people would be disgusted, even sick, the scientists would wonder where the boy puts all that protein and quite frankly, the way he eats it was also a topic of discussion. Including the part where Niji points out that he didn't need to detach his jaw. Only for Yonji to say he'd try to catch a sea king to know if he can eat it whole without the need to detach the jaw and so they can see the imprints of the sea king when he swallows it.

Reiju wonders if his teeth are rubber too, she missed to find that out when she sucked the poison out of the boy's body. In which Niji complains that he doesn't need to hear about his sister's love life, and he'd rather not know about the number of guys his sister had kissed in the guise of sucking out the poison. Which earns him a kick from Sanji and a punch from Yonji.

The whole day ended with fun and games, and when the night fell and they had to go to follow the rest of the crew to Wano. Nami and Luffy had decided to leave them with a Straw Hat Jolly Rodger, as well as a list of allied kingdoms and pirates that would help them if they come across it. When the rest of the Straw Hats had said their good byes, Sunny departed from the kingdom, yet Sanji stayed for just a bit more, saying that he can just sky walk to them later, and he has something more serious to talk about with his family.

When the Sunny was a fair distance form the kingdom, that was the time Sanji finally cried. He was instantly dog pilled by his siblings and parents. "I- missed- missed you all… so much." He'd said as he held them, who ever was in his arms tightly. "Thank you for supporting me, Mama, Dad." He'd beamed through the tears.

"Jeez Sanji, talking like we don't exist!?" Niji teased, but he was crying so much, the water in his goggles were pooling-up and leaking.

"We thought you were dead, and I should be mad at you, but I'm just so relieved you're alive you stupid brother!" Yonji scolds as he tightens his hug on Sanji's waist.

"Just, write to us sometime." Was all Ichiji could say.

Reiju didn't have words to say. She'd written them down and slipped the envelope at his back pocket, along with Ichiji's private line should anything happen to him. After a minute, the siblings finally let go of Sanji, this time it was Sora who'd hugged the life out of him. "Mama, I love you. Thank you." Was all Sanji would say. Sora's tears streamed down her face.

She recalled the simpler times when Sanji was a child. When he was 3 and had an indifference to pain; when he was 5 and had no compassion; and 8 without empathy and no regards to death. She recalled telling him about the things he couldn't feel and how a person should react. Now she wonders if he'd meant it. That he loves her.

"I love you too Sanji." That was all she could say. Because when she thinks about it now, he'd done so much to prove he does love them. More than saying that he does, he'd proven that he knows how to love. That she did not make a mistake. "I love you so much." She'd said warmly as she strokes his golden hair, still black at the roots, she realizes. The special colors of her son.

"Dad." Sanji had said when Sora had finally let him go. Sanji stood before his father, a respectable distance, enough to look him in the eye despite the glaring obvious size difference between the father and his family.

"When you let me leave with Zeff, he told me something I really wanted to tell you." He'd said seriously at first. Judge's heart twingged, a fear he'd kept for as long as 10 years.

He'd lamented about his decisions, again and again, some nights giving him not a wink of sleep at all. Some nights he'd dreamt that Sanji cursed him for leaving him, to let him pursue his passion without his guidance. Similar to his experience when his father had left him. How after that day, he'd remembered less and less about his father but the sadness in his eyes when he left him on Karakuri island. How he'd cursed his father at night when he tries to get the warmth he used to know as he sleeps on his bed, only to apologize to a memory of him the morning after.

He was prepared to face Sanji's wrath. He'd told himself. He was prepared for the anger and detestment; and whatever follows Sanji's decision. He deserved it, just as his father deserved his hatred, for his unforgiven sin of leaving him on the island.

"Dad." Sanji smiles, bright and wide and sincerely happy. "You're a good father. Thank you for believing in me."

* * *

As Sanji Sky Walks off and away from the Germa Kingdom and after the Sunny sailing towards the setting sun, the Vinsmokes could only watch as their brother/son takes off again. Chasing his dream and sailing with his friends.

Judge wipes the tears from his eyes. He'd never thought he'd be called a good father by the son he'd abandoned in East Blue. While he knew what he did was exactly what his father had done, left him alone to take on the world without a name to call his, nor parents to look for, Sanji still thanked him, called him a good father and hugged him.

While Judge doesn't know what he'd done to deserve such a good kid, a great family and a sweet wife, he'd certainly know who to thank for all of his good graces. After all, he'd learned everything from his father.

THE END

* * *

**Author's Note:**

AND DONE!

Well, that's it for this. I had fun with writing an OOC Vinsmoke family, next on my plate is something I call the "**NORTH BLUE BOYS BEING SECRET GERMA FANBOYS**". Totally unfinished, crack and has no literary value what so ever!

I present Law, Drake and Hawkins being North Blue Boys, playing with fan-based toys and being total nerdy fan-fiction writing fanboys in the closet (I have no beta readers!). Follow Author me if you want to read the first chapter when I post it! :D :D :D I'm so excited to write and share it! I don't even mind the fact not many reviewed and my writing style stays un-polished! Hahaha! :D :D :D I'm FREE TO FINALLY WRITE CRACK! :D

Once Again, Thank you for your support! Thank you, everyone, for reading till the end! :D HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!


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